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JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2010  with  funding  from 

Open  Knowledge  Commons 


http://www.archive.org/details/johnhunterhispupOOgros 


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JOHN  HUNTER 


AND    HIS    PUPILS. 


BY 


SvD:  GROSS,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  D.C.L.,  Oxon.,  LL.D., 

Cantab. 

PROFKSSOR   OF  SURGERY   IN   THE    JEFFERSON   MEDICAL    COLLEGE;    PRESIDENT 
OF  THE   PHILADELPHIA  ACADEMY  OF  SURGERY,   ETC. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
PRESLEY      BLAKISTOK, 

I  CI  2    W  A  L  X  U  T    S  T  REE  T. 
1881. 


n^o^ 


Kutercd  accordiiij;  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1881, 

By  rUESLEY  ULAKISTON, 

lo  ilio  Office  or  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington,  D.  C. 


1  \l^ 


\ 


XIIKRMAN  A  CO.,  niiNTEns, 
riflLAUKLPIIIA. 


PREFACE. 


The  following  pages  owe  their  appearance  to  a  request  of 
the  Philadelphia  Academy  of  Surgery  that  I  would  deliver  its 
first  anniversary  address.  In  assuming  this  duty  I  selected 
for  my  theme  the  life,  character,  and  services  of  the  founder 
of  scientific  surgery.  As  I  advanced  in  my  labors  my  materials 
grew,  as  it  were,  by  accretion,  and  thus  attained  proportions 
far  beyond  my  original  design. 

Memoirs  of  John  Hunter  were  published  soon  after  his  death 
by  his  brother-in-law,  Sir  Everard  Home,  Mr.  Jesse  Foot,  and 
Dr.  Joseph  Adams,  an  eminent  English  medical  scholar,  and 
author  of  "  Morbid  Poisons  "  and  other  able  works.  The  Life 
by  Home  was  prefixed  to  the  first  edition  of  Hunter's  Treatise 
on  Inflammation  and  Gunshot  Wounds,  but,  for  some  reason, 
was  omitted  in  the  subsequent  issues.  Foot's  memoir  was  a 
scurrilous  attempt  to  depreciate  the  character  of  Hunter  as  a 
scientific  man,  and  abounds,  as  might  be  supposed,  in  flagrant 
misstatements  and  wilful  misrepresentations.  If  the  author  had 
set  out  with  a  determination  to  gain  an  ignominious  immor- 
tality, he  could  not  have  succeeded  better.  In  1837  appeared 
the  excellent  memoir  by  Mr.  Drewry  Ottley,  prepared  for  Mr. 
Palmer's  edition  of  Hunter's  complete  works,  in  four  volumes 
octavo.  This  is,  by  far,  the  most  able,  full,  and  impartial  me- 
moir that  has  been  published  of  him.  Notices,  more  or  less 
elaborate,  of  Hunter  have  also  appeared  in  the  various  orations 
which  have  been  delivered,  since  18 14,  in  commemoration  of 
him  by  Fellows  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons.     None  of 


z  ^  <^>V 


5  PREFACE. 

these  memoirs,  however,  are  accessible  to  the  American  stu- 
dent, and  I,  therefore,  the  more  willingly  embraced  the  oppor- 
tunity afforded  me  by  the  delivery  of  the  address  in  question 
to  give  a  somewhat  detailed  account  of  the  life  and  services  of 
a  man  who  laid  the  foundation  of  scientific  surgery,  and  whose 
name  is  indelibly  associated  with  the  progress,  not  only  of  his 
own  profession,  but  with  that  of  histology,  physiology,  and 
comparative  anatomy.  My  task  has,  throughout,  been  one  of 
profound  respect  and  admiration,  not  unmingled  with  a  warm 
affection  for  the  character  of  a  man  who  was  so  great  an  orna- 
ment of  his  race,  and  who  has  reflected  so  much  honor  upon 
his  age  and  country.  I  was  anxious  that  the  American  student 
should  become  better  acquainted  with  the  inner  life  of  this  ex- 
traordinary man,  be  induced  to  study  his  writings,  and  profit 
by  his  example.  To  impart  additional  interest  to  the  memoir 
I  have  appended  to  it  brief  sketches  of  his  more  distinguished 
pupils,  as  well  as  of  a  few  of  his  English  contemporaries,  and 
of  some  of  the  men  who  were  especially  conspicuous  in  ex- 
tending his  doctrines  and  the  influence  of  his  teaching. 

The  portrait  which  accompanies  the  volume  has  been  pho- 
totyped  from  Sharp's  steel  engraving  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds's 
celebrated  painting,  of  which  Lavater  remarked,  "  This  is  the 
portrait  of  a  man  who  thinks." 

It  affords  me  pleasure  to  tender  my  acknowledgments  to 
Allen  Thomson,  Esq.,  of  London,  formerly  Professor  of  Anat- 
omy in  the  University  of  Glasgow,  and  to  Professor  Flower, 
the  learned  and  accomplished  Curator  of  the  Hunterian  Mu- 
.seum,  for  valuable  information  contributed  during  the  progress 
of  my  labors.  For  the  leading  facts  in  Hunter's  life  I  am  in- 
debted mainly  to  Ottley's  and  Home's  memoirs. 

S.  D.  Gross. 

l'llil.Ai.K.Li'iii.\,  January  I5tli,  rS8i. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGB 

General  Observations,  .  .........       9 

Birth  and  Boyhood  of  Hunter, .II 

Studies  Anatomy  under  his  Brother, .         -13 

Elected  House-Surgeon  to  St.  George's  Hospital,  .         .         .         .         -15 

Enters  the  Army  as  Staff-Surgeon, •     ^5 

Settles  in  London,        .         .         .         .         .       ■  .         .         .         .         .         •     IS 

Opens  a  School  of  Anatomy  and  Surgery, .16 

Elected  a  Member  of  the  Corporation  of  Surgeons,        .         .         .         .         .17 

Elected  Surgeon  to  St.  George's  Hospital, 17 

Marries,         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         •     i? 

Enters  upon  a  Course  of  Study  of  Natural  History  and  Comparative  Anatomy,     18 
Elected  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  .......     20 

Appointed  Croonian  Lecturer, .     20 

Becomes  an  Author,     .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .     20 

111  Health, 25 

Sudden  Death, 26 

Reinterment  at  Westminster  Abbey,      . 28 

Personal  Appearance  and  Character,     ........     29 

Thinks  of  Establishing  a  Zoological  Garden,         .'•.■■     33 

Unpopular  Manners, 34 

Kindness  to  his  Patients, 35 

Rank  as  an  Operator, 36 

Operation  for  Popliteal  Aneurism, 37 

Foreshadows  the  Principles  of  Orthopedic  Surgery, 39 

Membership  of  Different  Societies, 41 

Appointed  Surgeon  Extraordinary  to  George  HI, 41 

Assists  in  Founding  two  Medical  Societies, 43 

Assists  in  Founding  London  Veterinary  College, 43 

Estimate  of  him  as  a  Public  Lecturer, 44 

His  Punctuality, 46 

Appears  in  Court  as  a  Witness,      .........     46 

His  Humility  as  a  Practitioner  and  Student, 47 

His  Religious  Views, 48 

Sale  of  his  Museum, 49 

Hunterian  Oration,        ..........         -5' 

Extent  of  his  Museum,  ..........     5^ 


CONTENTS. 


Home's  Thefts, 

Hunter's  Labors  as  an  Original  Investigator, 
Hunter's  Assistants  in  his  Museum  Work,  . 
Value  of  the  Museum  as  a  Nursery  of  Biological  Study, 
Present  Condition  of  the  Museum,       .... 

State  of  Medicine  and  Natural  Science  when  Hunter  entered 

Great  Aim  of  his  Life  as  a  Student,     . 

His  Mental  Powers  and  Philosophical  Acumen,  . 

The  Lesson  of  his  Life,      ...... 

His  English  Contemporaries  in  Surgery, 


the 


Profession 


PAGE 

54 
55 
6i 

63 
64 
66 
68 
68 
70 
73 


CHAPTER  IL 

Hunter's  Pupils,           ...........  80 

Edward  Jenner,  ............  81 

John  Abernethy,  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .82 

Henry  Cline, 84 

Philip  Syng  Physick, 84 

Sir  Astley  P.  Cooper, 88 

Sir  Everard  Home, 89 

John  Thomson,  ............  90 

James  Macartney, gi 

Chevalier,  Wilson,  and  Coleman, 92 

Nathaniel  Rumsey 04 

Samuel  Cooper,  Benjamin  Travers,  Benjamin  C.  Brodie,  William  Lawrence, 

and  Joseph  Henry  Green or 

Stanley,  South,  and  Hawkins, 102 

Appendix, loc 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

LIFE,    CHARACTER,    AND    SERVICES    OF    HUNTER. 

All  intelligent  readers  of  biography  are  more  or 
less  familiar  with  the  labors  and  writings  of  John  Hun- 
ter, his  marvellous  genius,  and  his  vast  contributions  to 
science.  In  the  medical  profession  his  name  is,  and  al- 
ways will  be,  a  household  word  throughout  the  civilized 
world;  it  is  spoken  with  respect  and  reverence  in  every 
college  amphitheatre,  and  is  deeply  engraved  upon  the 
mind  of  every  student  of  surgery.  Nevertheless  there 
are,  it  may  safely  be  asserted,  many  points  of  interest 
in  his  life,  and  many  traits  of  character,  which  liave 
escaped  our  memory,  or  which  have  never  been  so 
thoroughly  impressed  upon  our  attention  as  to  enable 
us  to  appreciate  them  at  their  full  value. 

With  the  exception  of  Hippocrates,  the  father  of 
medicine,  John  Hunter  is  the  grandest  figure  in  the 
history  of  our  profession.  I  make  no  exception  in 
favor  of  Ambrose  Pare,  the  father  of  French  surgery 
and  the  inventor  of  the  ligature  for  the  arrest  of 
hemorrhage,  a  contrivance  which  has  been  instru- 
mental in  saving  so  many  lives ;  of  Albert  von  Haller, 
the  father  of  scientific  physiology,  or  even  of  Xavier 
Bichat,  the  founder  of  general  anatoniy,  and  one  of 

2 


jQ  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

the  most  remarkable  men  that  have  ever  hved.  Shall 
I  make  an  exception  in  favor  of  William  Harvey?  No; 
I  will  not  exclude  from  this  list  even  the  immortal  dis- 
coverer of  the  circulation  of  the  blood.  Great  as  these 
men  were,  and  vast  as  are  the  blessings  which  they 
have  conferred  upon  their  race,  it  is  no  disparage- 
ment to  them  to  say  that  John  Hunter  was,  in  many 
respects,  their  superior ;  not  in  learning,  for  herein 
Haller  had  greatly  the  advantage  ;  not  in  the  amount 
of  sufferine  which  he  has  been  instrumental  in  reliev- 
ing  by  his  surgical  writings,  for  in  this  respect  Am- 
brose Pare  was  fully  his  equal;  not  even  in  inventive 
genius,  for  here  it  will  be  found  that  Bichat,  who  created 
a  new  science  before  he  was  thirty  years  of  age,  was 
not  a  whit  his  inferior.  While-  Hunter  had  many  traits 
of  character  in  common  with  these  and  other  great 
men,  he  possessed  some  features  that  were  peculiarly 
his  own.  He  was  not  only  a  great  surgeon,  a  wise 
physician,  and  a  great  anatomist  and  physiologist,  hu- 
man and  comparative,  but,  above  all,  he  was  a  philoso- 
pher whose  mental  grasp  embraced  the  whole  range  of 
nature's  works,  from  the  most  humble  structure  to  the 
most  complex  and  the  most  lofty.  He  was  emphati- 
cally the  Newton  of  the  medical  profession,  and  what 
Pope  said  of  that  great  philosopher  may,  by  paraphrase, 
be  said  with  equal  force  and  truth  of  Hunter : 

"  Nature  and  Nature's  laws  lay  hid  in  night; 
God  said  '  Let  Hunter  be,'  and  all  was  light." 

Hunter  is  peerless  in  the  history  of  British  surgery; 
and  after  the  lapse  of  nearly  a  century  the  profession 
turns  to  his  memory  with  increased  reverence  for  his 
transcendent  genius,  his  matchless  ability,  and  his  un- 
equalled services.      To    say  that   he  was    simply  the 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  j  j 

founder  of  scientific  surgery  would  fall  far  short  of  his 
great  deserts;  to  do  him  full  justice  we  must  add  that 
he  was  the  father  also  of  scientific  zoology  and  of  com- 
parative physiology. 

I  say  nothing  in  this  connection  of  Edward  Jen- 
ner,  the  immortal  discoverer  of  vaccination,  because, 
although  his  labors  have  conferred  inestimable  bene- 
fits  upon  the  human  race,  they  involved  only  a  single 
problem,  the  solution  of  which  required  no  special 
genius.  Nor  do  I  deem  it  necessary  to  add  anything  in 
regard  to  Thomas  Sydenham,  justly  styled  the  mod- 
ern Hippocrates ;  for  the  reason  that,  although  he  was 
endowed  with  great  ability  as  an  observer,  he  possessed 
none  of  those  powers  of  generalization  which  formed 
such  wonderful  features  in  the  character  of  Hunter. 

To  appreciate  Hunter's  character  fully,  or,  in  other 
words,  to  form  a  just  idea  of  his  merits  as  an  observer, 
an  experimenter,  an  investigator,  a  teacher,  an  author, 
and  a  man  of  genius,  it  will  be  necessary  to  take,  as 
it  were,  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  history  of  surgery  at 
the  time  he  appeared  upon  the  active  stage  of  life  ;— 
how  he  came  to  study  medicine,  who  were  his  teach- 
ers and  contemporaries,  and  what  influence  he  exerted, 
by  his  discoveries  and  improvements,  upon  his  age  and 
upon  future  generations. 

Of  the  boyhood  of  Hunter  very  little  is  known,  and 
that  little  is  not  particularly  creditable  to  him.  He 
was  the  youngest  of  ten  children,  and  was  born  at 
Long  Calderwood,  Lanarkshire,  Scodand,  on  the  13th 
of  February,  1728.*  His  father,  who  was  nearly  sev- 
enty years  old  at  the  time  of  his  birth,  was  descended 

*  This  date  is  in  accordance  with  that  of  the  parish  register,  and  is  accepted 
by  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons  of  England  ;  but  Sir  Everard  Home  in  his  Life 
gives  the  14th  of  July  as  the  proper  one. 


J  2  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  TUPH^S. 

from  an  old  family  in  Ayrshire,  and  cultivated  a  small 
landed  estate,  which  afforded  him  but  a  scanty  subsist- 
ence. That  he  was  a  man  of  refinement  and  of  some 
education,  with  a  high  moral  and  religious  sense,  is 
proved  by  several  letters,  copies  of  which  are  still  ex- 
tant. His  mother  was  the  daughter  of  the  treasurer 
of  Glasgow.  At  the  age  of  ten  John  was  left  an  orphan, 
in  the  sole  care  of  his  mother,  who,  although  a  woman 
of  strong  mind,  failed  to  exercise  much  influence  over 
him.  Her  partiality  for  the  Benjamin  of  the  family, 
now  almost  her  only  companion,  was  not  likely  to 
sharpen  his  industry  or  to  instil  habits  of  regularity. 
The  consequence  was  that  his  education  was  almost 
wholly  neglected,  a  defect  which  pursued  him  during 
the  remainder  of  his  life,  and  which  in  his  maturer 
years  he  never  ceased  to  regret.  That  he  was  a 
wayward  boy,  impatient  of  restraint,  fond  of  company 
and  amusement,  given  to  idleness  and  disobedience,  is 
unquestionable  ;  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  was 
guilty  of  dissipation  or  intemperance.  •  At  the  age  of 
seventeen,  or  thereabout,  learning  that  his  brother-in- 
law,  a  cabinet-maker  at  Glasgow,  married  to  a  sister 
whom  he  dearly  loved,  was  laboring  under  pecuniary 
embarrassment,  he  paid  him  a  visit,  and  for  a  time 
assisted  him  in  his  business,  not  as  an  apprentice  but  a 
volunteer,  working  prol^ably  at  small  wages  or  sim- 
ply for  his  board  and  clothing.  It  was  this  circumstance 
which  induced  some  of  his  envious  contemporaries  to 
assert  that  in  early  life  he  had  been  a  wheelwright  or 
a  carpenter ;  a  statement  for  which  there  is  not  the 
slightest  foundation  in  truth.  Tiring  of  an  occupation 
which,  it  may  be  presumed,  had  nothing  genial  in  it, 
and  hearing  that  his  brother.  Dr.  William  Hunter,  who 
had  been  living  for  some  time  in  London,  was  doing  a 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  j  -, 

large  and  lucrative  practice,  and  rapidly  growing  in 
reputation,  a  desire  seized  him  to  visit  what  must  have 
appeared  to  his  heated  fancy  as  a  sort  of  El  Dorado. 
The  meeting  between  the  two  brothers  was  cordial, 
and  arrangements  were  at  once  effected  by  which  John 
became  an  assistant  in  William's  anatomical  rooms, 
which,  although  only  recently  opened,  had  already 
acquired  marked  celebrity  on  account  of  their  educa- 
tional advantages.  It  was  there  that  young  Hunter 
first  became  aware  of  his  latent  powers,  and  threw 
off  the  incubus  which  had  so  long  oppressed  his 
soul.  A  new  life  broke  in  upon  him ;  his  ambition 
was  aroused ;  industry,  steady  and  unremitting,  took 
the  place  of  idleness,  and  the  undecided,  wavering, 
erring  youth,  stimulated  by  the  new  atmosphere  in 
which  he  was  now  daily  immersed,  assumed  the  attitude 
and  the  assured  character  of  the  philosopher  and  the 
student  of  nature.  Who  or  what  brouo^ht  about  these 
wonderful  changes  in  the  life  and  conduct  of  this  young 
man,  so  sudden,  so  unexpected  ?  It  is  not  difficult  to 
answer  the  question.  It  was  simply  William  Hunter, 
and  the  influence  of  his  example.  John  saw  the  wonder- 
ful things  which  his  brother  was  doing  in  building  up  a 
'great  anatomical  museum,  and  it  is,  therefore,  not  sur- 
prising that  his  tastes  should  soon  have  taken  a  similar 
direction.  However  this  may  be,  his  proficiency  as  a 
practical  anatomist  was  so  very  rapid  that,  before  the 
end  of  twelve  months,  he  was  intrusted  with  the  prepa- 
ration of  his  brother's  subjects  for  his  anatomical  lec- 
tures ;  and  in  i  755,  seven  years  after  his  arrival  in  Lon- 
don, he  was  admitted  to  a  partnership  in  his  private 
school.*     Long  before  this  time  he  had  acquired  great 

*  The  first  task  assigned  to  him  was  the  dissection  of  the  muscles  of  an  arm, 
which  was  so  well  and  so  rapidly  done  that  he  was  next  set  to  preparing  an  arm 


J  ,  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

reputation  among  his  classmates  as  an  expert  dissector 
and  an  excellent  anatomist.  He  had  now  become  an 
active,  industrious  worker,  thoroughly  in  love  with 
his  occupation.  The  summer  of  1749  was  spent  by 
him  at  Chelsea  Hospital,  under  the  instruction  of  the 
celebrated  Cheselden,  who  was  then  nearing  his  grave ; 
and  in  1751  he  became  a  pupil  at  St.  Bartholomew's 
Hospital,  where  he  availed  himself  of  the  teachings  of 
the  not  less  renowned  Percivall  Pott,  another  great 
luminary  of  British  surgery.  It  has  already  been  stated 
that  Hunter's  early  education  had  been  sadly  neglected. 
Whether  it  was  that  he  was  himself  painfully  conscious 
of  the  fact,  or,  what  is  much  more  probable,  because  his 
friends  urged  him  to  take  the  step,  he  entered,  in  1753, 
as  a  gentleman  commoner  at  St.  Mary's  Hall,  Oxford. 
His  brother  William  was  very  anxious  that  he  should 
abandon  surgery  and  study  medicine,  which  was  at 
that  time  regarded,  and,  perhaps,  not  without  reason  in 
the  then  existing  state  of  the  science,  as  a  higher  branch 
of  the  healinof  art.  With  this  end  in  view  it  was  deemed 
very  desirable  that  John  should  have  a  respectable 
knowledge  of  Greek  and  Latin,  as  no  physician  was 
considered  as  being  properly  educated  without  it.  The 
effort,  however,  proved  abortive.  Hunter  was  now 
twenty-five  years  of  age,  and  he  had  no  disposition  to 
shut  himself  up  within  the  narrow  walls  of  a  college,  or 
to  give  up  the  idea,  formed  soon  after  he  settled  in  Lon- 
don, of  becoming  a  great  surgeon.  He  looked  upon 
such  studies  as  a  waste  of  time  ;  and  in  referring  to  the 
subject  some  years  afterwards,  he  thus  feelingly  ex- 
pressed himself:  "  They  wanted,"  he  said,  "  to  make  an 

with  the  bloodvessels.  This  labor  was  also  performed  in  so  satisfactory  a  manner 
as  to  elicit  the  hijjhest  commendation  from  his  brother,  who  predicted  his  future 
greatness  as  an  anatomist,  and  told  him  "  he  should  never  want  employment." 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


15 


old  woman  of  me,  or  that  I  should  stuff  Latin  and  Greek 
at  the  University  ; "  but,  added  he,  significantly  pressing 
his  thumb-nail  on  the  table,  "  these  schemes  I  cracked 
like  so  many  vermin  as  they  came  before  me,"'''  One 
cannot  but  regret  that  Hunter  did  not  carry  out  the 
wishes  of  his  friends.  A  little  "stuffing"  of  Latin  and 
Greek  would  have  been  of  vast  benefit  to  him,  in  pre- 
venting those  errors  of  style  and  of  literary  composition 
which  so  greatly  disfigure  and  obscure  his  writings. 

In  1754  Hunter  became  a  pupil  at  St.  George's 
Hospital,  where  two  years  later  he  received  the  ap- 
pointment of  house-surgeon.  This  position  he  retained, 
however,  only  for  a  short  time  ;  for,  owing  to  his  inces- 
sant labors,  his  health  was  beginning  to  suffer,  and 
fears  were  entertained  that  he  was  threatened  with 
phthisis.  This  compelled  him  to  seek  safety  in  change 
of  air  and  scene.  Through  the  agency  of  his  friends 
he  was  made  a  staff-surgeon,  and  was  at  once  sent 
with  the  army  to  Belleisle,  an  island  off  the  western 
coast  of  France,  where  he  enjoyed  ample  opportunities 
for  the  study  of  diseases  and  accidents,  and  gathered 
materials  for  the  composition  of  his  work  on  gunshot 
wounds.  These  opportunities  were  further  enhanced 
in  the  following  year  during  the  war  in  the  Peninsula. 
On  the  restoration  of  peace  in  1763,  Hunter  returned 
to  London,  invigorated  in  health,  and  loaded  with  new 
knowledge,  but  poor  in  pocket,  having  saved  little,  if 
anything,  of  his  pay  as  a  military  surgeon.  His  strug- 
gles as  a  young  practitioner  in  the  great  metropolis 
were  long,  arduous,  and  disheartening.  The  few 
connections  which  he  had  formed  before  he  joined 
the    army    were   lost   to    him,    and    his    place    in    his 


*  Oltley's  Life  of  John  Hunter,  Palmer's  edition,  vol.  i,  p.  14.     London,  1837, 


j^  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

brother's  dissecting-rooms  and  amphitheatre  was  oc- 
cupied by  Mr.  Hewson,  a  young  but  rising  anato- 
mist, afterwards  so  celebrated  for  his  discoveries  in  the 
lymphatic  vessels.  He  had,  therefore,  now  nothing  to 
depend  upon  but  his  half  pay  and  his  own  indomitable 
will,  stimulated  by  his  necessities  and  by  his  lofty  am- 
bition. Like  many  a  young  man  destined  to  attain  to 
eminence,  he  literally  carried  his  fortune  in  his  own 
hands.  Although  full  of  energy  he  was  not  a  man  to 
make  friends  or  to  inspire  public  confidence  rapidly. 
His  manners  were  abrupt,  and,  at  times,  even  coarse 
and  repulsive.  He  possessed  none  of  those  arts  which 
so  easily  please  and  fascinate  people,  and  which  so  often 
do  more  in  securing  respect  and  business  than  the 
highest  talent  or  the  most  consummate  knowledge. 
The  truth  is  he  had  too  good  an  opinion  of  himself,  and 
too  litde  respect  for  that  of  his  professional  brethren. 
He  felt  conscious  of  his  superior  mental  endowments, 
and,  therefore,  looked  upon  the  world  around  him  with  a 
species  of  contempt,  which  seldom  fails  to  recoil  with 
interest  upon  its  author.  The  humble  Scotch  youth 
by  his  intercourse  with  army  surgeons  and  gay  society 
was,  doubtless,  led  to  form  a  very  humble  estimate  of 
the  profession  generally.  Besides,  the  field  upon  which 
he  had  now  entered  was  occupied  by  able  men.  Pott 
stood  deservedly  at  the  head  of  the  profession  ;  Haw- 
kins, Bromfield,  Sharp,  and  Warner  also  enjoyed  a 
large  practice  ,'  and  there  was  a  number  of  younger 
surgeons  who  were  rapidly  rising  in  public  estima- 
tion. In  order  to  increase  his  income,  as  well  as  to 
afford  himself  useful  occupation,  Hunter  now  opened 
a  school  of  anatomy  and  operative  surgery,  and  deliv- 
ered regular  courses  of  lectures.  He  also  took  private 
pupils,  each  of  whom   was  apprenticed  to  him  for  five 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


17 


years,  at  a  fee  of  five  hundred  guineas,  a  sum  equiva- 
lent to  about  two  thousand  six  hundred  and  fifty  dollars 
of  our  money;  but  after  all  not  so  large  when  it  is 
recollected  that  it  included  board  and  lodgfinof.  This 
practice  of  taking  private  pupils  was  continued  until 
within  a  short  time  of  Hunter's  death.  In  the  list 
of  the  young  men  who  enjoyed  this  privilege  were, 
not  to  mention  others,  Edward  Jenner,  Abernethy, 
Physick,  and  John  Thomson,  the  author  of  the  cele- 
brated treatise  on  inflammation. 

In  1767  Hunter  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Cor- 
poration of  Surgeons,  an  institution  which  in  1800 
was  merged  into  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons.  Al- 
though the  Corporation  embraced  some  excellent  men, 
Hunter  had  so  little  respect  for  it  that  he  seldom 
attended  its  meetings  or  took  any  active  part  in  its 
deliberations.  Good  anatomist  and  experienced  sur- 
geon as  he  had  long  been  known  to  be,  it  was  not 
until  he  was  forty  years  of  age  that  he  received  a  hos- 
pital appointment.  In  1768  a  vacancy  occurred  in  St. 
George's  Hospital,  to  which,  through  the  influence 
mainly  of  his  brother.  Dr.  William  Hunter,  he  was 
elected  by  a  large  majority  over  his  competitors. 
This  position,  one  always  eagerly  sought  by  young 
men,  gave  him  a  new  start,  and  his  practice  immedi- 
ately increased  in  consequence.  Indeed,  his  fortune 
as  a  surgeon  was  now  fully  assured.  He  no  longer 
lacked  patients,  and  the  rigid  economy  which  he  had 
been  obliged  to  exercise  in  his  daily  outlays  gave 
way  to  comparative  affluence.  He  now  bought  a  lot 
of  ground  at  a  place  called  Earl's  Court,  about  two 
miles  from  London,  and  erected  a  large  and  commo- 
dious house,  still  famous  as  his  former  residence.  In 
I  771,  at  the  age  of  forty-three,  he   married  Ann,  the 


jg  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

daughter  of  a  surgeon  in  General  Burgoyne's  Light 
Horse,  and  a  sister  of  Mr.,  afterwards  Sir  Everard, 
Home,  whose  ultimate  career  is  so  intimately  con- 
nected with  that  of  Hunter.  Miss  Home  was  a  lady 
of  varied  accomplishments,  elegant  manners,  of  fine 
aesthetic  taste,  a  good  musician,  fond  of  society,  and 
somewhat  of  a  blue  stocking. 

The  house  at  Earl's  Court  was  erected  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  accommodating  his  preparations,  which 
already  amounted  to  a  cumbersome  collection  ;  but  it 
also  served  as  a  summer  residence  for  the  family.  On 
the  spacious  grounds  now  at  his  command  he  gathered 
a  large  number  of  animals,  birds,  fishes,  and  reptiles, 
as  well  as  various  other  objects  of  natural  history  ;  and 
one  of  his  favorite  amusements  in  the  summer  and 
autumn,  after  the  labors  of  the  day  were  over,  was  to 
ramble  among  these  creatures,  in  familiar  intercourse, 
petting  and  talking  with  some,  and  preserving  friendly 
relations  with  all.  It  was  at  Earl's  Court  that  Hunter 
entered  upon  that  career  which  invested  his  life  with  so 
much  eclat,  and  established  for  him  that  fame  which  made 
him  one  of  the  most  renowned  men  of  his  age.  His 
house  in  town,  which  had  hitherto  been  a  sort  of  curiosity 
shop,  he  still  retained.  He  also  continued  his  lectures 
on  anatomy  and  surgery,  took  pupils,  as  formerly,  into 
his  house,  as  was  then  the  custom  all  over  England, 
and  spent  all  the  time  he  could  snatch  from  his  practice 
in  the  study  of  comparative  anatomy  and  natural 
history  and  in  making  preparations  for  his  museum, 
His  habit  was  to  rise  at  four  o'clock  in  the  mornine,  to 
spend  from  four  to  five  hours  in  his  dissecting  rooms, 
and  then  to  step  into  his  carriage  to  make  his  daily  rounds 
among  his  patients.  He  had  no  fondness  for  surgical 
practice  or  consultations,  and  attended  to  business  only 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


19 


because  it  afforded  him  the  means  of  purchasing  objects 
of  curiosity  or  of  natural  history,  saying,  as  he  laid  aside 
his   scalpel   and   forceps,   "Well,  Lynn,"  a   pupil   and 

an  intimate  friend,  "  I  must  go,  and  earn  that  d d 

guinea,  or  I  shall  be  sure  to  want  it  to-morrow."  It  is 
obvious  enough  that  a  man  with  such  feelings  could 
not  have  much  love  for  the  drudgery  of  his  profession. 
Whatever  interfered  with  his  studies  and  his  philosophi- 
cal contemplations  was  regarded  by  him  as  a  serious 
interruption.  He  was  lavish  in  his  expenditures,  and 
was  often  obliged  to  borrow  money  to  meet  his  obliga- 
tions. Whenever  he  had  accumulated  ten  guineas 
from  his  earnings,  he  invariably  appropriated  a  part 
to  the  purchase  of  material  for  his  museum.  Every 
available  source  was  laid  under  contribution  for  speci- 
mens of  animals,  birds,  fishes,  reptiles,  and  insects, — the 
Zoological  Garden,  then  in  the  Tower,  travelling  me- 
nageries, sea  captains  sailing  to  different  countries, 
and  persons  at  home  and  abroad.  With  his  friend  and 
pupil.  Dr.  Edward  Jenner,  the  discoverer  of  vaccina- 
tion, he  carried  on  a  life-long  correspondence  respect- 
ing material  of  this  kind,  and  the  habits  of  birds,  bees, 
reptiles,  and  fishes.  In  one  of  his  letters  he  asks:  "Have 
you  large  trees  of  different  kinds  that  you  can  make 
free  with  ?  If  you  have,  I  will  put  you  upon  a  set  of 
experiments  with  regard  to  the  heat  of  vegetables." 
He  asks  a  similar  question  with  regard  to  bats,  the 
hedgehog,  and  other  animals.  Indeed,  he  must  have 
kept  Jenner  often  very  busy,  for  nothing  short  of 
thorough  work  answered  Hunter's  purpose.  He  took 
nothing  on  credit.  In  one  of  his  letters  to  Jenner  he 
asks  for  information  about  the  temperature  of  the 
hedgehog.  He  observes  :  "  I  think  your  solution  is  just ; 
but  why  think  ?  Why  not  try  the  experiment  ?"  and  then 


2Q  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

adds  :  "  Try  the  heat ;  cut  off  a  leg  at  the  same  place  ; 
cut  off  the  head,  and  expose  the  heart  and  let  me 
know  the  result  of  the  whole."  The  temperature  of 
insects,  animals,  and  vegetables  occupied  much  of 
Hunter's  thoughts,  and  he  eventually  published  a  valu- 
able paper  upon  the  subject  in  the  Philosophical  Trans- 
actions. In  1767  he  was  elected  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal 
Society  ;  and  in  the  following  year  he  sent  to  that  body 
a  memoir  on  the  means  to  be  employed  in  the  resus- 
citation of  drowned  persons.  In  1776  he  was  appointed 
Croonian  lecturer  by  the  Royal  Society,  and  the  sub- 
ject which  he  selected  for  discussion  was  muscular 
motion,  into  which,  as  usual,  he  introduced  much  novel 
and  interesting  matter.  The  course  was  completed  in 
1782,  and  the  Society  asked  for  a  copy  of  it  for  publi- 
cation ;  but  to  this  derrtand  Hunter  demurred,  on  the 
ground  that  he  had  not  completed  his  investigations. 
Much  of  the  matter,  however,  found  its  way  afterwards 
into  some  of  his  various  writings,  so  that,  probably, 
nothino-  of  value  has  been  lost. 

We  must  next  inquire  into  Hunter's  merits  as  an 
author.  Notwithstanding  his  want  of  scholarship,  and 
the  labor  with  which  he  composed,  he  was  a  prolific 
writer.  Many  of  his  contributions,  especially  those  on 
comparative  anatomy  and  physiology,  found  their  way 
into  the  Transacdons  of  the  Royal  Society  and  other 
publications,  in  which  they  generally  elicited  much  at- 
tention. His  first  systematic  work  was  his  Treatise  on 
the  Natural  History  and  Diseases  of  the  Human  Teeth, 
the  first  part  of  which  was  issued  in  1 771,  and  the 
second  seven  years  later.  The  work  was  well  received, 
and  gready  enhanced  his  reputation  as  an  acute  ob- 
server and  investigator.  His  attention  seems  to  have 
been  originally  directed  to  the  subject  by  the  deplor- 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  2  I 

able  state  of  dentistry,  which  was  almost  solely  confined 
to  the  barber  or  ignorant  mechanic,  whose  chief  occu- 
pation consisted  in  extracting  and  plugging  teeth. 
Although  vast  improvements  have  been  effected  since 
the  time  in  which  he  wrote,  improvements  which  far 
exceed  those  of  any  other  specialty  in  surgery,  save 
that  of  the  eye,  to  Hunter  is  justly  due  the  great  merit 
of  rescuing  dentistry  from  the  hands  of  empiricism, 
and  of  placing  it  upon  a  broad  and  scientific  basis  by 
pointing  out,  in  distinct  terms,  the  physiological  and 
pathological  relations  which  the  teeth  bear  to  the  rest 
of  the  system.  It  is  in  this  work  that  we  find  the  first 
notice  of  the  operation  of  transplanting  teeth  from  the 
mouth  of  one  person  into  that  of  another  ;  an  opera- 
tion first  practiced  by  Hunter,  and  frequendy  repeated 
under  his  supervision,  until,  owing  to  the  serious  con- 
sequences which  so  often  attended  it,  it  was  finally 
abandoned.  It  was  ascertained  that,  although  the 
transplanted  tooth,  in  many  cases,  readily  contracted 
adhesions  and  even  vascular  connections  with  the 
gums,  it  either  soon  dropped  out,  or  caused  so  much 
irritation  as  to  require  its  removal.  Occasionally,  in- 
deed, the  operadon  was  followed  by  syphilis,  as  when 
a  tooth  was  transplanted  from  a  tainted  to  a  healthy 
person.  We  may  imagine  how  delighted  Hunter 
must  have  been  when  he  found  that  he  could  success- 
fully transplant  a  human  tooth  to  the  comb  of  a  cock,  or 
the  testicle  of  a  cock  to  the  abdomen  of  a  hen  ;  opera- 
tions which,  in  several  instances,  he  performed  most 
successfully. 

The  Treatise  on  the  Venereal  Disease  appeared  in 
1776,  followed  by  a  second  edidon  in  1778.  Having 
been  long  and  impadently  expected,  it  at  once  attracted 
general  attention.     Although  extraordinary  care  had 


2  2  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  TUPILS. 

been  bestowed  upon  its  preparation,  it  abounded  in 
blemishes,  for  the  correction  of  which  the  author  availed 
himself  of  the  services  of  a  committee  of  three  of  his 
most  learned  and  accomplished  friends,  consisting  of 
Mr.,  afterwards  Sir  Gilbert,  Blane,  Dr.  George  For- 
dyce,  and  Dr.  Pitcairn,  whom  he  met  at  stated  inter- 
vals for  the  purpose.  These  gentlemen  suggested 
many  verbal  alterations,  and  greatly  improved  the 
work  by  rendering  the  text  more  polished  and  intel- 
ligible. Hunter  was  particularly  solicitous  to  make  it  as 
perfect  as  possible.  He  had  spent  many  years  in  col- 
lecting his  material ;  his  object  was  to  produce  a  great 
work,  founded  solely  upon  his  personal  observations. 
He  neither  in  this  nor  in  any  of  his  other  productions 
pinned  his  faith  upon  what  others  had  said  upon  the 
subject.  He  had  seen  much  of  this  disease  during  his 
connection  with  the  army,  and  afterwards  in  civil  prac- 
tice, and  he  felt  that  he  could  let  the  work  rest  upon 
its  own  intrinsic  merits.  His  account  of  venereal  af- 
fections was  for  upwards  of  a  third  of  a  century  the 
best  authority  on  the  subject  in  any  language,  and  his 
description  of  the  indurated  chancre  is  so  graphic 
and  distinct  that  it  will  always  be  called  by  his  name. 
True,  it  had  been  recognized  by  previous  observers, 
as  Torella,  De  Vigo,  Fallopius,  and  Ambrose  Pare, 
but  no  one  had  ever  so  clearly  delineated  its  distinc- 
tive features. 

The  Treatise  on  the  Blood,  Inflammation,  and  Gun- 
shot Wounds,  a  work  of  vast  labor  and  the  most 
patient  research,  and  upon  which  Hunter's  fame  as  a 
surgeon  and  a  medical  philosopher  largely  rests,  was 
published  in  1794,  under  the  supervision  of  Dr.  Matthew 
Baillie  and  Sir  Everard  Home,  only  about  one-third  of 
the  proofs  having  been  revised  by  the  author  at  the 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


^?> 


time  of  his  death.  Notwithstanding  Hunter  strove  to 
render  the  work  as  perfect  as  possible,  it  was  obscured 
by  numerous  errors  of  style,  and  the  punctuation  was 
execrable.  A  Life,  by  Sir  Everard  Home,  was  prefixed 
to  the  volume,  but  this,  for  some  reason,  was  omitted 
in  the  succeeding  editions  of  1812,  1818,  and  1828. 
These  editions  were,  it  would  seem,  simply  reprints  of 
the  first,  with  all  the  original  errors. 

A  complete  edition  of  Hunter's  works  was  issued  in 
London  in  1837,  in  four  octavo  volumes,  illustrated  by 
a  volume  of  plates  in  quarto,  under  the  supervision  of 
Mr.  James  F.  Palmer,  assisted  by  Drewry  Ottley, 
Thomas  Bell,  George  B.  Babington,and  Richard  Owen, 
the  distinguished  naturalist,  palaeontologist,  and  com- 
parative anatomist.  These  gentlemen  were  selected 
on  account  of  their  peculiar  fitness  for  their  respective 
tasks.  Palmer  himself  superintended  the  publication 
of  the  Lectures  on  the  Principles  of  Surgery,  and  of  the 
Treatise  on  the  Blood,  Inflammation,  and  Gunshot 
Wounds  ;  to  Bell,  an  eminent  dentist,  was  assigned  the 
tract  on  the  Teeth ;  Babington,  a  physician  of  wide 
reputation,  took  charge  of  the  Treatise  on  the  Venereal 
Disease ;  and  Owen  edited  the  papers  on  Compara- 
tive Anatomy  and  Physiology,  including  an  account  of 
those  published  in  the  Philosophical  Transactions.  Ott- 
ley furnished  a  biography  of  Hunter  for  the  first  vol- 
ume, which  contains  by  far  the  most  able  and  lucid  ac- 
count of  him  and  of  his  writings  that  has  ever  been 
written.  The  Lectures  on  the  Principles  of  Surgery 
were  mainly  printed  from  a  copy,  taken  in  short  hand, 
by  Nathaniel  Rumsey,  a  pupil  of  Hunter. 

All  the  works  of  Hunter  have  been  translated  into 
the  Continental  languages  of  Europe,  and  with  the  ex- 
ception of  Palmer's  edition,  republished  in  this  coun- 


2  A  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  TUPILS. 

try.  A  Latin  edition  of  the  Natural  History  of  the 
Teeth  was  issued  at  Leipsic  in  1775.  The  Treatise  on 
the  Venereal  Disease  has  probably  been  more  frequently 
read  than  any  other  of  his  productions.  Ricord  edited 
repeated  editions  of  it,  and  in  this  country  several  edi- 
tions were  brought  out  by  the  late  Dr.  Freeman  J.  Bum- 
stead,  of  New  York. 

His  work  on  the  Animal  Economy,  consisting  mainly 
of  a  series  of  papers,  considerably  altered  in  matter  as 
well  as  style,  and  previously  printed  in  the  Philo- 
sophical Transactions,  was  published  in  1786.  The 
articles  relate  chiefly  to  anatomical  and  physiological 
subjects,  and  evince  that  rare  spirit  of  generalization 
and  mental  acumen  so  characteristic  of  Hunter. 

One  reason,  apparently,  why  Hunter's  lectures  and 
writings  were  marked  by  such  glaring  obscurities  was 
that  he  was  obliged  to  invent  so  many  new  expressions 
in  order  to  meet  the  wants  created  by  his  own  labors 
and  discoveries.  He  was  the  first,  for  instance,  to  use 
such  expressions,  as  "adhesive  inflammation,"  "ulcera- 
tive absorption,"  "  morbid  poisons,"  and  others  of  a 
similar  kind,  unknown  to  his  contemporaries,  who  felt 
little  inclination  to  acquaint  themselves  with  their  im- 
port. Hunter  neververified  Bacon's  maxim  that  "writ- 
ing makes  an  exact  man."  His  style  seems  to  have 
been  little,  if  any,  better  In  his  later  than  it  was  In  his 
earlier  years,  when,  as  a  raw  student,  he  entered  upon 
his  gigantic  work.  There  are  men  who  never  speak 
or  write  grammatically  ;  they  cannot  overcome  the  de- 
fects of  their  early  education,  and  of  this  class  of  men 
John  Hunter  was  a  remarkable  example.  His  genius 
soared  above  the  regions  of  grammar  and  of  rhetoric* 

*  In  reading  the  works  of  Hunter  .ind  of  Bichat  one  cannot  fail  to  be  struck 
with  the  peculiarities  of  their  style ;  both  were  slovenly  writers,  and  their  Ian- 


JOHN  I^'XTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  2C 

He  had  a  high  opinion  of  putting  one's  thoughts  into 
writing.  "  It  resembles,"  he  said,  "  a  tradesman  taking 
stock,  without  which  he  never  knows  what  he  possesses 
or  in  what  he  is  deficient." 

With  the  exception  of  an  attack  of  pneumonia  in 
1759  Hunter  enjoyed  excellent  health  during  the  first 
forty  years  of  his  life.  In  1769  he  was  seized  with  a 
severe  fit  of  the  gout,  which  greatly  alarmed  him,  as  it 
was  attended  with  excessive  pallor  of  his  countenance, 
and,  for  nearly  three-quarters  of  an  hour,  with  total  ex- 
tinction of  the  pulse,  and  almost  entire  absence  of 
breathing.  Notwithstanding  this  he  soon  resumed  his 
labors,  which  now,  however,  began  seriously  to  under- 
mine the  powers  of  his  constitution,  which  was  still 
further  impaired  in  1775  by  a  spasmodic  affection  of 
different  parts  of  the  body,  preceded  by  symptoms  of  his 
former  complaint.  The  heart  at  length  became  involved, 
and  on  one  occasion  the  paroxysm  was  so  violent  as  to 
cause  syncope.  These  attacks  compelled  him  for  a  time 
to  relax  his  efforts,  and  to  avail  himself  of  the  use  of  the 
mineral  waters  of  Tunbridge  and  of  Bath.  Although 
his  health  was  greatly  benefited  by  the  change,  it  ever 
afterward  remained  in  a  precarious  condition,  his  car- 
diac disorders  frequently  recurring  upon  the  slightest 
exertion,  fatigue,  or  mental  irritation.  In  December, 
1789,  four  years  before  his  death,  he  was  suddenly 
seized,  while  on  a  visit  to  a  friend,  with  total  loss  of 
memory.  He  knew  not  in  whose  house  he  was,  the 
name  of  the  street,  the  object  of  his  call,  the  name  of 
the   family,  or,  in   short,  anything  he  had  ever  said  or 

guage  is  often  so  obscured  by  blemishes  as  to  render  it  difficult  to  comprehend 
its  proper  meaning.  Hunter  composed  slowly,  Bichat  rapidly ;  the  latter  never 
revised  his  MSS.,  and  it  is  said  that  his  General  Anatomy,  in  four  volumes,  was 
written  and  published  in  a  single  year. 

/'  3 

/ 


25  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS 


done  ;  the  machinery  of  his  mind  seems  to  have  been 
almost  completely  suspended,  and  a  full  half  hour 
elapsed  before  the  engine  resumed  its  accustomed  work. 
During  all  this  time,  however,  consciousness  remained, 
and  special  sensation  was  unimpaired.  Hunter  was 
so  painfully  sensible  of  his  situation  that  he  was  wont 
to  say  to  his  friends  that  his  life  was  In  the  hands  of  any 
rascal  who  chose  to  fret  or  worry  him.  It  is,  therefore, 
not  surprising  that  these  attacks  should  have  rendered 
him  nervous  and  irritable,  and  less  capable  of  control- 
ling his  naturally  impetuous  temper.  His  final  hour 
came  at  last, — death,  sudden  and  unexpected,  over- 
took him  at  St.  George's  Hospital,  at  a  meeting  of  the 
Governors  and  of  the  Surgical  Staff  of  that  institution, 
called  on  business  of  importance  connected  with  the 
admission  of  pupils  and  the  mode  of  instructing  them. 
During  the  discussion  which  ensued.  Hunter  made  a 
remark  which  one  of  his  colleacjues  considered  it  neces- 
sary  at  once  flatly  to  contradict.  Choked  with  angry 
and  tumultuous  emotions.  Hunter  immediately  ceased 
speaking,  and,  hurrying  into  an  adjoining  room,  fell, 
with  a  deep  groan,  lifeless  into  the  arms  of  one  of  the 
attending  physicians.  All  attempts  to  revive  him 
proved  abortive.  An  event  so  sad  and  so  unusual 
called  forth  a  widespread  sympathy,  and  created  a 
profound  sensation  wherever  his  name  and  fame  were 
known  and  appreciated.  His  carriage,  drawn  by  two 
elegant  bay  horses,  returned  soon  after  without  its 
master,  whose  body  followed  in  a  sedan  chair,  a  sad 
and  appalling  spectacle  for  the  family  and  friends  of  the 
great  surgeon.  Like  Caesar,  Hunter  was  murdered 
by  his  friends,  not  in  the  senate  chamber,  but  in  the 
consultation  room  of  a  hospital  which  had  so  long  been 
the  recipient  of  his  services,  of  which  he  was  the  chief 


JOHN  IIUXTER  AXD  HIS  PUPILS.  37 

ornament,  and  which  should  have  overlooked  his  infir- 
mities, some  of  them  inherent  in  his  nature  and  others 
the  result  of  longr-continued  overwork  of  mind  and 
body.  An  examination  after  death  revealed  the  exist- 
ence of  ossification  of  the  mitral  valves  of  the  heart  and 
dilatation  of  the  aorta,  with  thickening  of  its  valves  and 
degeneration  of  its  coate.  The  coronary  arteries  were 
converted  into  long-  rio^id  tubes.  The  heart  itself  was 
uncommonly  small.  At  the  time  of  his  death,  on  the 
1 6th  of  October,  1 793,  Hunter  was  in  his  sixty-fifth  year. 
His  body  was  interred  in  the  Church  of  St.  Martin-in- 
the-'Fields,  the  funeral  being  strictly  private,  a  few  of 
his  medical  friends  alone  being  present.  His  widow 
was  anxious  to  deposit  it  in  Westminster  Abbey,  but 
the  fees  demanded  for  admission  exceeded  her  means, 
and  it  was  not  until  March  28th,  1859,  that,  through 
the  influence  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons  and  of 
public  sentiment,  it  found  a  final  resting-place  in  that 
sacred  depository  of  England's  illustrious  men,  of  whom 
he  was  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  remarkable. ■=' 

For  finding  the  remains  of  Hunter,  the  profession  is 
solely  indebted  to  the  late  Mr.  Frank  Buckland,  the  well- 
known  naturalist,  and  a  son  of  a  former  Dean  of  West- 
minster Abbey. f  He  knew  that  Hunter  had  been  in- 
terred in  the  Church  of  St.  Martin-in-the-Fields,  and 
learning,  casually,  that  it  was  the  intention  of  the  church 
to  reinter  the  bodies  that  had  been  so  long  confined  in 
its  vaults,  he  embraced  the  opportunity,  and  after  six- 

*  Mrs.  Hunter  spent  her  widowhood  in  a  state  of  retirement,  devoting  herself 
to  the  education  of  her  two  children,  and  to  the  composition  of  a  small  volume 
of  poems,  which  she  published  in  her  latter  years,  and  which  is  said  to  have  pos- 
sessed considerable  merit  as  a  light  effort.  She  wrote  a  glowing  epitaph  in  mem- 
ory of  her  late  husband,  intended  for  a  tablet  to  be  placed  over  his  remains,  but 
this  was  never  done,  as  it  was  contrary  to  the  rules  of  St.  Martin's  Church. 
She  died  early  in  the  present  century,  universally  beloved  and  esteemed. 

f  Curiosities  of  Natural  History,  vol.  ii,  pp.  160-179. 


2g  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPH.S. 

teen  days  of  hard  work,  during  which  he  and  his  assist- 
ant removed  3060  coffins,  and  inhaled,  much  to  their 
detriment,  the  foul  vapors  of  this  horrible  necropolis, 
he  at  length,  when  almost  in  despair,  came  upon  the 
much-coveted  object  of  his  search.  The  coffin  was,  in 
the  main,  well  preserved,  and  upon  a  brass  plate  bore 
this  inscription  :  " 

John  Hunter, 

Esq., 
Died  1 6th  Octr., 

1793. 
Aged  64  years. 

It  also  represented  Hunter's  arms — a  hand  with  an 
arrow  in  it,  and  the  three  horns  of  the  hunter. 

There  is  not,  as  has  been  justly  observed  by  Dean 
Stanley,  a  more  curious  narrative  of  a  chivalrous  devo- 
tion to  the  relics  of  a  great  man.  than  that  displayed  in 
this  extraordinary  labor  of  Mr.  Buckland,  which  ended 
in  the  triumphant  recovery  of  the  remains  of  the  foun- 
der of  scientific  surgery.* 

I  visited  last  summer  the  tomb  in  Westminster 
Abbey  in  which  the  mortal  remains  of  the  great  man 
now  repose,  and  found  upon  the  tablet  which  covers 
it  the  subjoined  inscription  : 

"  O  Lord,  how  manifold  are  thy  works." 

Beneath 

are  deposited  the  remains  of 

John  Hunter, 

Born  at  Long  Calderwood,  Lanarkshire,  N.  B., 

on  the  13th  of  February,  1728, 

Died  in  London  on  the  i6th  of  October,  1793. 

His  remains  were  removed 

from  the  Church  of  St.  Martin-in-the-Fields  to  this  Abbey 

on  the  28th  of  March,  1859. 

*  Historical  Memorials  of  Westminster  Abbey,  p.  335,  London,  1868. 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


29 


The  Royal  College  of  Surgeons  of  England  has 
placed  this  tablet  over  the  grave  of  Hunter,  to  record 
its  admiration  of  his  genius  as  a  gifted  interpreter  of 
the  divine  power  and  wisdom  at  work  in  the  law  of  or- 
ganic life,  and  its  grateful  veneration  for  his  services 
to  mankind,  as  the  founder  of  scientific  surgery. 

"  In  wisdom  hast  Thou  made  them  all." 

In  the  same  year  in  which  his  remains  were  interred 
in  the  great  Abbey,  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons 
adopted  measures  for  the  erection  of  a  marble  statue 
to  him,  and  through  the  efforts  mainly  of  Mr,  John 
F.  South,  its  Vice-President,  the  sum  of  ^1172  was 
promptly  raised  for  that  object.  The  work  was  in- 
trusted to  Mr.  Weekes,  the  eminent  sculptor,  who, 
availing  himself  of  the  portrait  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds 
and  of  a  cast  of  Hunter's  face  taken  after  death,  pro- 
duced an  admirable  likeness,  a  sort  of  copy  in  marble, 
which  was  completed  in  1864,  and  now  graces  the  mu- 
seum of  the  Colleofe. 

In  person  Hunter  was  of  middle  height,  but  very 
strong  and  robust,  with  a  very  short  neck,  broad  shoul- 
ders, and  a  broad  expansive  forehead,  denotive  of  high 
cerebral  development.  His  eyes  and  complexion  were 
light,  his  brows  heavy,  his  cheeks  rather  high,  and,  as 
one  of  his  biographers  expresses  it,  his  mouth  was 
somewhat  underhung.  His  hair,  in  his  youth,  was  in- 
clined to  red,  but  as  he  advanced  in  life  it  became  gray, 
and  at  length  partially  white.  He  possessed  great 
powers  of  endurance  and  required  little  sleep,  often 
working,  with  hardly  any  intermission,  for  nearly 
twenty  hours  out  of  the  twenty-four.  In  his  manners 
he  was  unostentatious  and  rather  cold  and  reserved  ; 
in  his  dress,  plain  and  simple,  and  not  always  particu- 


^Q  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

larly  neat.  He  wore,  as  was  then  the  custom,  short 
breeches,  with  knee  and  shoe  buckles/-'  His  temper 
was  warm  and  impulsive,  and,  although  he  was  natu- 
rally kind,  he  often  betrayed  ill-feeling,  especially  when 
any  one  "  galled  his  patience,"  or  when  he  was  over- 
crowded with  business,  unusually  fatigued,  or  intensely 
occupied  in  some  Interesting  and  absorbing  inves- 
tigation requiring  uncommon  patience,  deep  thought, 
or  persistent  effort.  At  such  times  his  irritability 
occasionally  got  the  advantage  of  his  judgment  and 
good  breeding.  It  is  related  of  him  that,  returning 
late  one  evening  more  than  ordinarily  worried  and 
fatigued,  he  found  a  large  party  of  ladies  and  gentle- 
men assembled  in  his  drawing-room.  Feeling  exces- 
sively annoyed  at  this  unexpected  sight,  he  gave  way 
to  his  anger,  exclaiming :  "  I  ought  to  have  been  in- 
formed of  this  kick-up,  and  as  I  have  come  home  to 
study  I  hope  the  company  will  now  retire,"  which 
they  of  course  at  once  did.  Such  conduct  was  not 
only  inconsiderate  but  harsh,  and  must  have  left  a  very 
unpleasant  impression  upon  every  one  who  witnessed 
it.  Mrs.  Hunter,  who  was  a  woman  of  high  spirit,  as 
well  as  of  high  culture,  and  fond  of  social  life,  must 
have  been  greatly  mortified  at  such  an  ill-timed  and 
discourteous  display  of  passion.  Notwithstanding  such 
occasional  ebullitions,  the  marriage  was,  it  is  said,  a 
happy  one,  its  fruit  being  four  children,  only  two  of 
whom,  however,  a  son   and   daughter,  survived  their 

*  Of  the  various  portraits  that  are  extant  of  him  that  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds 
is  by  far  the  best.  It  represents  him  as  sitting  in  a  chair  in  deep  thought,  with  a 
pen  in  one  hand  and  the  other  supporting  his  chin.  From  this  portrait  an  admi- 
rable steel  engraving  was  made  by  Sharp,  a  celebrated  artist,  copies  of  which  were 
widely  disseminated,  and  still  adorn  many  a  surgeon's  study.  After  his  deatji  a 
bust  of  him  was  made  by  Flaxman,  in  the  execution  of  which  he  was  assisted  by  a 
cast  taken  during  life. 


JOHN  HUXTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


31 


father,  the  others  having  died  young-.  Hunter  had  httle 
taste  for  society  or  amusement.  He  had  no  idle  mo- 
ments. Minutes  and  hours  were  aHke  precious  to 
him.  He  never  was  happy  unless  he  had  something 
to  do.  Men  like  him  have  an  inner  life,  of  which 
the  outer  world  has  no  knowledge  or  appreciation. 
Such  a  life  might  be  called  selfish,  but  selfish  only  in 
so  far  as  it  is  not  in  sympathy  with  the  world  of  idlers 
and  triflers,  or  with  men  who  pass  their  time  in  gayety 
and  frivolity.  Hunter  had  nobler  objects  in  view.  His 
mission  was  to  study,  to  work,  and  to  interpret  nature 
and  nature's  laws  for  the  benefit  of  science  and  of  hu- 
manity. Had  he  been  a  frequenter  of  the  drawing- 
room,  the  theatre,  the  concert,  or  the  opera,  he  might, 
it  is  true,  have  earned  an  honorable  reputation,  but 
that  reputation  would  have  fallen  far  short  of  that 
transcendent  fame  which  he  has  bequeathed  to  his  pro- 
fession, to  his  country,  to  his  age,  and  to  the  world, 
and  which  has  immortalized  alike  his  name  and  his 
noble  work.  And  yet  Hunter,  ascetic  as  he  apparently 
was,  was  by  no  means  insusceptible  of  social  enjoy- 
ment. When  not  too  intently  occupied  he  took  pleas- 
ure in  the  conversation  of  his  friends,  loved  to  talk 
with  his  pupils,  and  often  played  with  his  children,  tak- 
ing a  lively  interest  in  their  studies  and  amusements. 
Nay  more,  he  was  very  fond  of  animals,  and  not  un- 
frequently  spent  hours  in  watching  their  pranks,  and 
at  times  even  participating  in  their  sports.  Such  con- 
duct is  certainly  not,  to  say  the  least,  reconcilable  with 
the  idea  of  a  bad  temper,  or  a  cross,  ill-grained  dispo- 
sition. On  the  contrary,  it  places  Hunter  in  the  very 
best  light  of  a  kind-hearted,  if  not  amiable  man;  snap- 
pish at  times,  when  overworked,  but,  in  the  main,  thor- 
oughly good-natured.     In  his  boyhood,  and  even  for 


^2  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

some  time  after  he  settled  in  London,  he  was  a  merry, 
rolHcking  fellow,  inclined  to  mischief  and  to  gross  hi- 
larity, especially  in  the  dissecting-room,  in  the  com- 
pany of  the  noisy  students  and  the  resurrectionists, 
among  whom  he  always  went  by  the  name  of  "  Jack 
Hunter."  One  of  his  favorite  amusements  was  to  visit 
the  shilling  gallery  to  assist  his  boisterous  friends  in 
damning  an  unpopular  play,  in  which  he  was,  it  would 
seem,  an  expert.  He  was  a  great  swearer,  a  practice 
by  no  means  uncommon  in  those  days  even  in  polite 
society;*  and  he  was  often  deficient  in  courtesy,  so 
characteristic  of  the  well-bred  gentleman.  To  his 
patients  he  was  kind  and  liberal,  and  not  a  few  were 
warmly  attached  to  him.  Whatever  his  faults  may  have 
been  as  a  young  man,  in  after  years  he  became  more 
sedate,  and  found  It  more  difficult  to  unbend  himself. 
Hence  people  who  met  with  him  only  casually,  or  who 
knew  nothing  of  his  habits,  naturally  concluded  that 
he  was  austere  and  unsociable.  His  sly  humor,  how- 
ever, never  entirely  forsook  him.  He  was  always,  even 
in  his  later  days,  fond  of  a  good  joke  and  of  a  well- 
told  anecdote,  and  he  himself  occasionally  indulged  his 
fancy  in  placing  things  in  so  ludicrous  a  light  as  to  ex- 
cite merriment.  When  young  he  was  much  given  to 
dancing,  and  it  was  while  thus  enjoying  himself  one 
evening  that  he  ruptured  his  tendo  Achillis. 

Hunter's  familiarity  with  his  animals  came  very  near, 
on  at  least  two  occasions,  costing  him  his  life.  He 
loved  to  be  among  them,  to  study  their  habits,  and  to 
attach  them,  if  possible,  to  his  person.     He  used  to 


*  This  habit  is  perhaps  not  entirely  extinct  even  at  the  present  day  in  certain 
parts  of  England.  We  have  the  authority  of  Macaulay  for  saying  that  Wellington 
invented  the  expression,"  I  don't  care  one  two-penny  darnr^^"  a  small  oath,  adds 
the  historian,  altogether  disproportionate  to  the  Duke's  greatness.  Life  and  Let- 
ters, by  Trevelyan,  vol.  ii,  p.  221. 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


33 


amuse  himself  with  bees,  and  for  many  years  he  kept 
a  flock  of  oreese  in  order  that  he  mig-ht  have  a  never- 
faihng  supply  of  eggs  for  experimental  purposes.  He 
was  very  fond  of  a  little  bull,  a  present  from  the  Queen, 
with  which  he  had  lonof  been  on  the  closest  terms  of 
intimacy,  when  suddenly,  one  day,  without  any  assign- 
able cause,  while  they  were  engaged  in  wrestling,  the 
animal  became  greatly  infuriated,  and  turning  violently 
upon  him  would  have  killed  him  if  he  had  not  been 
rescued  by  a  servant  who  happened  to  be  close  by.  On 
another  occasion,  indicative  alike  of  Hunter's  courage 
and  of  his  wonderful  presence  of  mind,  his  life  was 
placed  in  imminent  jeopardy  by  two  pet  leopards, 
which,  escaping  from  their  inclosure,  ran  about  the 
yard  ;  one,  chased  by  the  dogs,  and  the  other  about  to 
leap  over  the  fence,  when  Hunter,  attracted  by  the 
noise  of  the  neighbors,  who  were  in  a  state  of  great 
consternation,  rushed  from  his  study  and  seizing  the 
animals  by  the  neck  restored  them  safely  to  their  ken- 
nel. The  excitement,  however,  was  so  great  that,  when 
it  was  over,  he  fell  into  a  partial  swoon. 

Hunter,  at  one  time,  seriously  thought  of  establish- 
ing a  zoological  garden,  and  with  this  view  endeavored 
to  enlist  the  services  of  Dr.  Jenner,  who,  however,  was 
unwilling  to  join  him,  and  the  enterprise  was,  therefore, 
reluctantly  abandoned,  although  he  had,  for  a  short 
time,  a  considerable  collection  of  animals  and  birds  on 
exhibition  at  Brompton,  near  Earl's  Court.  For  many 
years,  as  previously  stated,  he  spared  neither  pains  nor 
expense  in  procuring  all  kinds  of  living  animals,  birds, 
and  reptiles,  with  a  view,  not  only  of  studying  their 
habits,  but  also  for  experimental  purposes,  and  for  the 
illustration  oi  comparative  anatomy  and  physiology. 
Even    insects  were  laid   under  contribution,  and  the 


34 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.. 


Study  of  the  honey-bee  was  for  a  long  time  an  object 
of  special  interest  with  him.  The  numerous  specimens 
which  were  here  accumulated,  including  specimens  in 
mineralogy,  conchology,  and  even  in  palaeontology,  now 
grace  the  museum  known  by  his  name,  while  of  many 
of  them  an  account  is  to  be  found  either  in  his  collected 
writings  or  in  the  Philosophical  Transactions.  The 
labors  at  Earl's  Court  were  not  of  a  flickering  or  parox- 
ysmal character,  but  were  continued  with  hardly  any 
intermission  through  his  whole  professional  career,  the 
daily  sustenance  and  stimulus  of  his  existence.  They 
always  formed  the  early  exercises  of  the  day,  generally 
from  six  to  ten  o'clock,  when  he  was  obliged  to  aban- 
don them  in  order  that  he  might  earn  that  "  d d 

guinea,"  as  he  was  wont  to  call  it,  which  stood  so  much 
in  the  way  of  his  tastes  and  his  happiness,  and  yet  was 
so  necessary  for  the  supply  of  his  daily  wants.  Mere 
routine  practice  had  no  charms  for  him,  and  one  may 
well  imaijine  with  what  reluctance  he  exchanored  the 
genial  labors  of  the  morning  for  the  dry  details  of  a 
surgical  consultation,  when  his  heart  was  left  in  his 
workshop. 

The  kind  of  life  led  by  Hunter  was  not  calculated  to 
make  him  a  popular  practitioner.  His  manners,  as 
stated  in  a  former  part  of  this  memoir,  were  blunt, 
and  he  was  sometimes  overbearing,  even  to  men  of 
his  own  rank  in  the  profession,  or  his  equals  in  so- 
cial position.  His  colleagues  at  St.  George's  Hospi- 
tal especially  disliked  him,  and  the  feelings  of  animos- 
ity engendered  by  his  disagreeable  conduct  occasion- 
ally broke  out  into  open  hostility.  It  is  not  wise  when 
a  man  has  an  exalted  opinion  of  himself  to  show  it  at 
every  opportunity,  or  to  express  his  contempt  for  others 
who  may  be  his  equals  or  his  superiors.     Hunter  was 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


35 


deficient  in  tact ;  he  despised  policy,  and  seldom  took 
pains  to  conceal  his  feelings.  His  life  would  have  been 
far  happier,  if  not  also  more  useful,  if  he  had  been  more 
conciliatory  in  his  conduct  towards  those  with  whom  he 
was  brought  into  contact  in  the  sick-room,  as  well  as 
in  the  daily  walks  of  life.  His  practice  for  many  years 
was  large  and  lucrative,  and  greatly  increased  in  both 
these  respects  after  he  was  appointed  court  surgeon. 
All  accounts  go  to  show  that  he  was  most  patient  and 
painstaking  in  the  investigation  of  his  cases,  and  most 
cautious  in  the  expression  of  his  opinions.  If  he  found 
himself  at  a  loss  in  determining  the  diagnosis,  he  did 
not  hesitate  to  acknowledge  it  and  to  ask  for  further 
time.  He  would  merely  say  :  "I  cannot  tell,  at  present, 
what  to  recommend  ;  I  must  think  of  it."  With  him, 
as  with  every  honest  and  conscientious  man,  every  case 
was  a  study,  not  to  be  lightly  passed  over,  or  treated 
with  heartless  indifference.  He  was  always  particu- 
larly condescending  to  his  poorer  patients  during  con- 
sultation hours  at  his  own  house.  No  matter  how 
many  "  grandees,"  as  he  called  them,  might  be  present, 
he  generally  gave  precedence  to  the  former,  saying 
they  had  no  time  to  spare,  whereas  the  others,  having 
nothing  to  do,  could  afford  to  wait.  He  would  some- 
times deduct  largely  from  a  stipulated  fee  for  an  opera- 
tion if  he  found  that  the  person  had  unusual  difficulty 
in  raising  the  money.  On  one  occasion  on  which  the 
sum  agreed  upon  was  twenty  guineas,  he  sent  back 
nineteen,  having  incidentally  learned  that  the  husband 
of  the  patient  was  a  very  poor  but  worthy  man.  Surely 
such  conduct  implies  the  existence  of  a  kind,  unselfish 
heart,  and  such  a  heart  Hunter  naturally  possessed, 
however  roufjh  his  exterior  might,  at  times,  have  seemed 
to  be. 


^g  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

Notwithstanding  his  profound  knowledge  of  anat- 
omy, Hunter  never  ranked  high  as  an  operator.  Pott 
and  Bromfield,  not  to  mention  others  of  his  London 
contemporaries,  w^ere  his  acknowledged  superiors  in 
this  respect,  and  fully  his  equal  in  practical  surgery.* 
He  was  a  surgical  pathologist  rather  than  an  operator; 
a  lover  of  principles,  and  a  hater  of  knives.  It  is  said 
of  him  that  he  never  invented  an  instrument,  as  it  was 
of  Cullen  that  he  never  introduced  a  new  remedy. 
The  fact  is.  Hunter  had  no  very  exalted  opinion  of 
operative  surgery.  An  operation,  he  remarks,  is  a  re- 
flection on  the  healinor  art,  a  tacit  acknowledo-ment  of 
the  insufficiency  of  surgery.  How  unjust  such  a  view 
is  every  tyro  in  the  profession  knows.  If  a  surgeon 
could,  in  every  case  of  injury  or  disease,  have  charge 
of  the  patient  before  the  part  and  system  are  over- 
powered by  morbid  action,  such  an  opinion  might  be 
entitled  to  some  respect ;  but  when  it  is  considered 
that  the  reverse  is  so  often  the  case  ;  that  inflamma- 
tion and  its  consequences  often  commit  great  havoc 
before  the  case  falls  into  the  hands  of  the  surgeon; 
that  not  unfrequently,  despite  the  most  consummate 
skill  and  the  most  assiduous  care  and  attention  nothing 
but  an  operation  can  save  life,  such  reasoning  cannot 
be  too  pointedly  condemned.  Besides,  who  will  dare 
to  accuse  surgery  of  insufficiency,  or  to  speak  of  it  as  a 
disgrace,  in  the  treatment  of  tumors,  stone  in  the  blad- 
der, the  excision  of  joints,  fractures  of  the  skull,  and  such 

*  It  was  natural  for  Home,  his  brother-in-law,  to  speak  of  his  operative  skill 
in  terms  of  uniualified  praise  ;  but  we  have  the  testimony  of  Sir  Astley  Cooper, 
one  of  his  most  illustrious  pupils,  and  himself  no  common  operator,  for  stating 
that  Hunter  possessed  little  or  no  dexterity;  certainly  not  the  least  elegance. 
His  anatomical  knowledge,  however,  was  very  accurate,  and  this,  added  to  his 
coolness  and  self-possession,  generally  enabled  him  to  complete,  although  slowly, 
any  operation  he  might  undertake. 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  ^7 

malformations  as  clubfoot,  harelip,  and  cleft  palate  ? 
Operations  are  a  disgrace  only  when  they  are  per- 
formed unskilfully,  or  without  any  just  cause. 

Whether  Hunter  was  ever  extensively  engaged  in 
operative  surgery  does  not  seem  to  be  known.  Largely 
as  he  was  occupied,  for  many  years,  in  private  and  hos- 
pital practice,  frequentopportunitiesmust  have  occurred 
for  the  employment  of  the  knife,  but  whether  he  per- 
formed this  duty  himself  or  confided  it  to  others  I  have 
no  means  of  determining.  Home  refers  to  two  suc- 
cessful operations  which  he  performed  for  the  removal 
of  two  huge  tumors,  one  on  the  head  and  the  other  on 
the  neck.  The  latter  was  so  large,  and  involved  such 
important  structures,  that  one  of  the  best  surgeons  in 
England  declared  no  one  but  a  fool  or  madman  would 
attempt  its  excision.  There  is  no  record  going  to  show 
that  he  ever  cut  anybody  for  stone  in  the  bladder. 
Hunter  was  one  of  the  first  surgeons  who  taught  that 
the  only  way  of  preventing  hydrophobia  was  to  excise 
the  wounded  structures.  The  only  very  remarkable 
operation  with  which  his  name  is  associated  is  the  one  in 
which  he  tied  the  femoral  artery  for  the  cure  of  a  popliteal 
aneurism,  a  feat  which  had  never  been  achieved  before, 
and  as  the  procedure  involved  a  new  principle  it  has 
ever  since  been  designated  by  his  name.  The  subject 
of  aneurism  had  long  occupied  his  thoughtful  study, 
and  he  was  painfully  aware  of  the  insufficiency  of  the 
various  methods  of  treatment  in  use  up  to  the  time 
when  he  entered  upon  the  active  duties  of  his  profes- 
sional life.  Having  ascertained  from  numerous  dissec- 
tions that  the  artery  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the 
disease  is  usually  in  an  unsound  condition,  he  came  to 
the  conclusion,  after  much  reasoning  and  retlect'on, 
that  the  only  rational  plan  was  to  tie   the  vessel  in  a 


^g  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

healthy  portion  of  Its  extent,  at  the  cardiac  side  of  the 
tumor,  and  consequently  at  some  distance  from  It.  The 
first  case  In  which  this  theory  was  put  Into  operation 
was  one  of  popliteal  aneurism  In  a  coachman,  forty-five 
years  of  age,  a  patient  In  St.  George's  Hospital.  The 
operation,  a  memorable  one  In  the  history  of  surgery, 
was  performed  In  December,  1785,  and  was  followed 
by  a  complete  cure,  notwithstanding  that  four  ligatures 
were  applied  Instead  of  one,  as  Is  now  and  as  has  long 
since  been  the  custom.  Hunter's  excuse  for  this  bun- 
gling, unscientific  piece  of  surgery  was  his  fear  of 
secondary  hemorrhage,  not  apparently  knowing  that 
such  an  amount  of  exposure  of  the  artery  as  the  ap- 
plication of  four  ligatures  necessitated  would  add 
greatly  to  the  liability  of  Its  occurrence  and  the  danger 
of  a  fatal  Issue. 

I  shall  not  stop  here  to  Inquire  into  the  claims  of 
Hunter  to  the  honor  of  being  the  first  to  perform  this 
operation  upon  correct  scientific  principles.  These 
claims  have  long  been  generally,  if  not  universally 
admitted  by  surgeons,  excepting  the  French,  who  have 
invariably  ascribed  the  merit  of  it  to  their  country- 
man, Anel.  No  impartial  historian,  however,  can  fail 
to  award  It  to  the  Englishman.  The  case  of  Anel  was 
a  traumatic  aneurism  of  the  brachial  artery  at  the  bend 
of  the  arm  caused  by  the  prick  of  the  lancet  In  vene- 
section. The  ligature  was  applied  close  to  the  tumor, 
and  the  artery  was  perfectly  sound.  Hunter's  case 
was  one  of  spontaneous  aneurism  dependent  upon  a 
diseased  condition  of  the  vessel,  which  was  secured  In 
a  healthy  portion  of  its  extent  at  a  considerable  dis- 
tance from  the  tumor.  In  the  one  case  an  important 
principle,  the  result  of  deep  study  and  long-continued 
reflection,  was  Involved  ;  In  the  other,  none.     Hunter's 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  on 

deep  concern  was  that  after  the  Hgation  of  so  large  an 
artery  the  collateral  vessels  might  not  be  sufficient  to 
carry  on  the  circulation  in  the  distal  portion  of  the 
limb.  He  had  derived  some  encourag^ement  from  an 
examination  of  the  velvet  of  the  stag's  horn,  in  which 
there  is  an  enormous  development  of  vessels,  estab- 
lishing an  intimate  connection  between  the  antler  and 
the  integument  of  the  head  ;  but  to  put  this  matter 
fully  to  the  test,  he  induced  Sir  Everard  Home  to  tie 
the  femoral  artery  of  a  dog,  and  the  result  was  pre- 
cisely what  he  had  anticipated.  He  concluded,  more- 
over, from  a  careful  study  of  the  functions  of  the  lym- 
phatic vessels,  that  the  blood  in  the  aneurism  would  be 
gradually  absorbed,  and  here,  again,  his  reasoning  did 
not  disappoint  him. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  Hunter  foreshadowed  the 
principles  which  now  guide  the  surgeon  in  the  treat- 
ment of  clubfoot  and  analogous  distortions.  While 
dancing  in  i  "i^"]  he  ruptured  his  tendo  Achillis,  a  cir- 
cumstance which  led  him  to  institute  a  series  of  experi- 
ments upon  the  reunion  of  divided  tendons  in  the 
dog,  by  severing  these  cords  subcutaneously  with  a 
couching-needle.  The  animals  were  killed  at  different 
periods,  when  it  was  ascertained  that  the  union  had 
been  effected  in  a  manner  similar  to  that  of  a  simple 
fracture.  His  own  tendo  Achillis,  as  was  found 
after  death,  had  united  by  ossific  matter.  It  nowhere 
appears  that  Hunter  made  any  practical  use  of  the 
knowledge  thus  acquired,  and  he  cannot,  therefore,  as 
some  of  his  admirers  have  asserted,  be  considered  as 
the  founder  of  orthopedic  surgery,  inasmuch  as  he 
made  no  practical  application  of  the  results  of  his  ex- 
periments, but  viewed  them  simply  in  their  physio- 
logical   and   pathological    relations.     It    remained  for 


40 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


Stromeyer,  nearly  half  a  century  later,  to  place  the 
subject  in  its  true  light,  without,  in  all  probability, 
any  aid  from  Hunter's  experiments,  or  any  knowl- 
edore  that  his  attention  had  ever  been  directed  to  the 
subject. 

Upon  no  surer  foundation,  I  am  inclined  to  think, 
rests  the  assertion  of  his  distinguished  pupil,  Pro- 
fessor James  Macartney,  of  Dublin,  that  he  was 
aware  of  the  fact,  so  strenuously  insisted  upon  by  the 
Irish  surgeon  and  his  followers,  that  wounds,  under 
favorable  circumstances,  might  heal  without  inflamma- 
tion. The  only  passages  in  Hunter's  works  which 
at  all  countenance  this  view  are  the  following :  "  The 
healing  proceeds,  without  pain  or  constitutional  disturb- 
ance, as  if  nothing  had  happened ;"  and  in  another 
place  he  says:  "There  is  only  a  feeling  of  tenderness 
in  the  part,  and  that  is  entirely  from  the  injury  done, 
and  not  from  the  operation  of  union."  "  In  treating  of 
the  same  subject,"  remarks  Macartney,*  "  he  further 
says  that  inflammation  comes  on  as  a  necessary  con- 
sequence of  parts  being  too  weak  to  unite  by  the 
first  intention,  or  not  having  the  power  or  disposition 
to  heal."  How  such  expressions  could  be  tortured 
into  the  idea  that  Hunter  supposed  that  wounds  heal 
without  inflammation  it  would  be  difficult  to  deter- 
mine. Had  he  entertained  such  a  belief  he  certainly 
would  not  have  withheld  a  knowledge  of  it  from  the  pro- 
fession, or  failed  to  give  utterance  to  it  in  his  lectures 
and  writings.  It  might  as  well  be  assumed  that  Hip- 
pocrates had  been  the  discoverer  of  auscultation,  be- 
cause the  idea  had  occurred  to  him  that  diseases  mi^fht 
be  detected  by  the  sounds  emitted  by  the  affected  struc- 

*  Treatise  on  Inflammation,  p.  lo.     Philadelphia,  1840. 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  ^j 

tures.  Robert  Hooke,  the  mathematician,  and  other 
philosophers,  entertained  similar  views, — views  which 
were  not  realized  until  the  early  part  of  the  present 
century,  when  Laennec  first  applied  them  in  practice. 
Hunter  hit  the  truth,  but  failed  to  perceive  its  import; 
and  had  it  not  been  for  his  pupil  the  fact  might  still 
be  slumbering  in  the  womb  of  time. 

Hunter's  doctrines  were  not  well  received  by  his 
immediate  English  contemporaries.  They  could  see 
in  them  nothing  of  any  particular  value,  and  concluded 
that  nothing  good  could  come  out  of  Nazareth.  Many 
regarded  his  teachings  with  contempt,  as  the  offspring 
of  a  conceited  man,  and  as  nothing  better  than  what 
they  could  find  in  their  own  libraries.  It  is  not  known 
whether,  like  Harvey,  he  suffered  in  his  practice  from 
this  cause.  No  wonder  that  he  was  occasionally  dis- 
heartened. "The  few  good  things  I  have  been  able  to 
do,"  he  was  heard  to  say,  "  have  been  accomplished 
with  the  greatest  difficulty,  and  encountered  the  great- 
est opposition." 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that,  while  Hunter  was  treated 
with  cold  indifference,  if  not  positive  contempt,  by 
members  of  his  own  profession,  he  received  numerous 
testimonials  of  esteem  and  appreciation  from  learned 
societies  at  home  and  abroad,  as  well  as  of  friendly 
recognition  from  his  own  sovereign.  In  1767  he  was 
made  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society  of  London ;  in  1776 
Surgeon  Extraordinary  to  George  III;  in  1783  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Royal  Society  of  Medicine  and  of  the  Royal 
Society  of  Surgery  of  Paris;  in  1786  Deputy  Surgeon- 
General  of  the  army;  and  in  1789,  four  years  before 
his  death,  Surgeon-General  and  Inspector.  The  Copley 
medal  of  the  Royal  Society,  the  highest  distinction  in 
its  gift,  was  conferred  upon  him  in  1 786,  in  recogni- 

4 


^2  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

tion  of  the  value  of  his  services  as  an  original  Investi- 
gator. The  American  Philosophical  Society,  the  Royal 
College  of  Surgeons  of  Ireland,  the  Chirurgo-Physlcal 
Society  of  Edinburgh,  and  the  Royal  Society  of  Sciences 
and  Belles-Lettres  of  Gottenburg  enrolled  him  among 
their  members. 

Hunter,  after  his  election  to  the  Royal  Society,  at- 
tended its  meetings  with  great  regularity,  and  en- 
riched its  Transactions  with  many  of  his  most  cele- 
brated papers.  How  he  ranked  as  a  debater,  no  in- 
formation has  reached  us ;  but  it  may  easily  be  con- 
jectured that  a  man  who  was  notoriously  dull  as  a 
lecturer  In  the  presence  of  a  class  of  young  and  com- 
paratively ignorant  students,  would  not  be  a  very  bril- 
liant speaker  in  a  society  composed  of  many  of  the 
most  distinguished  philosophers,  scientists,  travellers, 
explorers,  and  men  of  letters  In  Great  Britain.  We  may 
imagine  that  he  would  often  be  at  fault  for  a  word, 
that  his  grammar  would  be  none  of  the  best,  and  that 
his  sentences  were  not  always  rounded  off  In  the  most 
elegant  or  classical  style.  That  he  was  fond  of  dispu- 
tation, both  as  a  salutary  mental  exercise  and  as  a 
means  of  instruction,  appears  sufficiently  evident,  for 
we  find  that  soon  after  his  election  to  membership  of 
the  Royal  Society  he  Induced  a  number  of  his  friends 
and  associates  to  join  him  in  forming  a  club,  which 
always  met  at  some  coffee-house  immediately  after 
the  adjournment  of  the  meeting  of  the  Society  for  the 
purpose  of  discussing  more  fully  any  philosophical  or 
scientific  subjects  that  might  at  the  time  be  engrossing 
their  attention.  Papers  Intended  for  the  Philosophical 
Transactions  were  also  fully  criticised  here  before  they 
were  published.  How  long  these  reunions  lasted  is 
not  now  remembered.     Among  the  more  prominent 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  a^ 

members,  besides  Hunter,  were  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  Dr. 
George  Fordyce,  Dr.  Solander,  Mr.  Ramsden,  an  emi- 
nent surgeon,  Sir  Charles  Blagden,  and  Mr.  Gumming, 
a  distingruished  mechanician. 

Along  with  his  friend  Dr.  George  Fordyce,  Hunter 
founded  the  London  Medical  Lyceum,  a  society  which 
enjoyed  for  some  time  considerable  reputation  on 
account  of  the  hieh  standinor  of  some  of  its  members ; 
and  in  1783  he  assisted  in  establishing  a  "Society 
for  the  Improvement  of  Medical  and  Ghirurgical 
Knowledge,"  whose  Transactions,  although  they  cover 
only  three  volumes,  were  rendered  famous  by  Jen- 
ner's  earlier  papers  on  vaccination,  and  by  the  valu- 
able contributions  of  Hunter,  Fordyce,  Baillie,  Home, 
Abernethy,  and  others.  The  society  lasted  about 
twenty  years,  when,  after  the  lapse  of  some  time,  it  was 
succeeded  by  the  Medico-Chirurgical  Society  of  Lon- 
don, one  of  the  most  useful  institutions  of  the  kind  in 
the  world. 

I  may  here  state  as  a  fact  highly  creditable  to 
Hunter's  ardor  in  the  pursuit  of  valuable  information, 
as  well  as  an  evidence  of  his  warm  sympathy  for  all  sen- 
tient beings,  that  he  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  study 
of  the  diseases  and  injuries  of  the  lower  animals,  feeling 
convinced  that  the  information  thus  derived  might  be 
made  of  great  benefit  in  extending  our  knowledge  of 
human  physiology  and  pathology;  and  when,  in  1 792,  an 
effort  was  made  to  establish  a  veterinary  college,  he 
eagerly  seized  the  opportunity  of  becoming  one  of  its 
founders.  To  show  how  thoroughly  he  appreciated  the 
importance  of  the  enterprise,  he  deposited  /200  in  its 
behalf,  without  any  assurance  of  its  ever  being  returned. 
When  the  organization  was   completed  the   Duke  of 


44 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


Northumberland,  who  was  a  still  larger  contributor, 
was  elected  President,  and  Hunter  Vice-President.  I 
am  not  certain  whether  the  present  London  Veterinary 
College,  rendered  famous  by  the  labors  of  Coleman, 
Youatt,  and  other  distinguished  men,  Is  the  same  insti- 
tution or  one  of  its  offshoots. 

Hunter  had  been  eno-asfed  almost  ever  since  his 
return  from  the  army  in  teaching  anatomy  and  surgery 
at  his  own  residence  ;  but  in  1773  he  determined  to  be- 
come a  public  lecturer,  assigning  as  a  reason  for  the 
step  that  his  doctrines  were  often  misunderstood  or 
wilfully  misrepresented,  and  that,  therefore,  it  was  due 
to  himself  to  place  them  in  their  true  light  before  the 
profession.  The  lectures  were  delivered  gratuitously 
during  the  first  two  winters  at  St.  George's  Hospital, 
but  after  that  period  he  charged  the  same  fee  as  other 
teachers,  and  they  were  thenceforth  given  in  a  room  in 
Leicester  Square,  hired  expressly  for  the  purpose  at 
his  own  expense.  They  were  repeated  annually  until 
1792,  when  his  arduous  labors  compelled  him  to  resign 
them  in  favor  of  Sir  Everard  Home,  who  had  long  been 
his  private  as  well  as  hospital  assistant. 

As  a  lecturer  Hunter  was  not  popular  or  particu- 
larly instructive.  His  manner  was  dull  and  prosy,  and 
he  seldom  raised  his  eyes  from  his  note-book ;  his 
statements  were  often  contradictory,  and  occasionally 
he  lost  the  train  of  his  thoughts  or  wandered  from 
his  subject.  His  language,  rarely  elegant,  was  at  times 
coarse  and  even  vulgar.  Lecturing  was  a  formidable 
task  for  him,  and  he  sometimes  felt  so  uncomfortable  as 
to  be  compelled  to  take  laudanum  to  compose  his  nerves. 
His  classes  never  exceeded  fifty,  even  in  his  best  days, 
and  not  one-half  of  that  number,  says  Ottley,  derived 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


45 


much  benefit  from  his  teaching.*  One  of  his  great 
faults  was  that  he  was  not  sufficiently  practical ;  he 
paid  little  attention  to  operations,  but  confined  himself 
to  the  discussion  of  principles,  and  as  many  of  these  were 
new,  or  not  fully  established,  his  instruction  often  failed 
to  make  much  impression.  His  course,  even  as  early 
as  1774,  embraced  nearly  ninety  lectures.  His  pupils, 
however,  generally  became  warmly  attached  to  him, 
for  in  his  intercourse  with  them  he  was  always  kind 
and  thoughtful,  and  omitted  no  occasion  to  aid  and  en- 
courage them  in  their  studies  and  in  their  preparation 
for  the  active  duties  of  life.  Many  of  them,  as,  for  in- 
stance, Abernethy,  Macartney,  Cooper,  Thomson,  and 
Physick,  became,  in  time,  the  leading  spirits  of  their 
profession,  propagating  and  extending  his  doctrines, 
and  reflecting  immortal  credit  upon  him  as  their  pre- 
ceptor and  master.  His  great  aim  was  to  make  them 
act  and  think  for  themselves,  and  to  investigate,  ex- 
perimentally, whatever  seemed  to  them  to  be  obscure 

*  According  to  Abernethy,  "  the  more  humorous  and  lively  part  of  the  audience 
would  be  tittering,  the  more  sober  and  unexcitable  dozing  into  a  nap,  while  the 
studious  and  penetrating  appeared  to  be  seriously  impressed  with  the  value  of 
Mr.  Hunter's  observations  and  inquiries."  Macilwain's  Life  of  Abernethy,  p. 
153.     New  York,  1853. 

As  an  offset  to  this  statement,  I  may  remark  that  one  of  his  pupils,  Mr.  Cline^ 
who  afterwards  rose  to  eminence,  after  having  attentively  listened  to  Hunter's 
lecture  one  day  was  heard  to  say :  "  Ah !  Mr.  Clift,  we  must  all  go  to  school 
again."  Could  a  higher  compliment  than  this  be  paid  to  a  teacher  ?  Hunter,  no 
doubt,  occasionally,  perhaps  frequently,  shot  over  the  heads  of  his  pupils. 

In  his  Ilunterian  Oration,  delivered  in  1824,  Cline  thus  further  expresses  him- 
self respecting  Hunter's  teaching:  "I  had  the  happiness  of  hearing  the  first 
course  of  lectures  which  John  Hunter  delivered.  I  had.  been  at  that  time  for 
some  years  in  the  profession,  and  was  tolerably  well  acquainted  with  the  opinions 
held  by  the  surgeons  most  distinguished  for  their  talents,  then  residing  in  the 
metropolis;  but  having  heard  Mr.  Hunter's  lectures  on  the  subject  of  disease,  I 
found  them  so  far  superior  to  everything  I  had  conceived  or  heard  before,  that 
there  seemed  no  comparison  between  the  great  mind  of  the  man  who  delivered 
them  and  all  the  individuals,  whether  ancient  or  modern,  who  had  gone  before 
him."     Life  of  Sir  Astley  Cooper,  by  B.  B.  Cooper,  vol.  i,  p.  94.     London  :   1843. 


.  ^  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

or  doubtful.  He  would  tell  them  to  try,  to  be  patient, 
to  be  accurate,  to  be  thorough,  having,  In  doing  this, 
no  doubt,  his  own  example  in  view. 

Hunter  was  a  scrupulous  observer  of  punctuality, 
and  he  enjoined  this  precept  with  peculiar  force  upon 
his  pupils.  He  never,  if  possible,  failed  to  meet  a  pro- 
fessional engagement,  and  occasionally  became  very 
angry  if  the  attendant  was  not  on  time,  or  if  an  appoint- 
ment was  made  for  him  without  his  having  been  pre- 
viously consulted.  His  biographers  tell  us,  what  indeed 
one  might  have  anticipated,  that  he  carried  these  regula- 
tions into  his  domestic  arrauQ^ements.  His  dinner  hour 
was  4  o'clock,  then  the  custom  in  London,  and  that  no 
time  might  be  lost  the  meal  was  always  served  at  that 
hour,  whether  he  was  present  or  absent.  He  dined 
very  heardly,  but  seldom  drank  more  than  one  glass 
of  wine.  His  habit  was  to  sleep  for  an  hour  after 
dinner,  after  which  he  dictated  to  an  amanuensis,  pre- 
pared his  notes  for  the  next  day's  lecture,  and  redred 
for  the  night  about  12  o'clock,  a  very  little  sleep, 
usually  about  five  hours,  sufficing  to  set  his  machinery 
in  order  for  the  coming  work. 

In  1 78 1  Hunter  appeared  in  court  as  a  witness  in 
the  celebrated  trial  of  Captain  Donellan  for  the  sup- 
posed murder  of  his  brother-in-law.  Sir  Theodosius 
Boughton.  He  was  subpcenaed  as  an  expert,  but 
his  tesdmony  was  so  disjointed  and  contradictory  as  to 
render  it  impossible  to  deduce  from  it  any  rational  con- 
clusions. He  had  either  not  made  himself  acquainted 
with  the  nature  of  the  case,  or  he  wilfully  determined 
not  to  commit  himself.  The  judge  lost  his  temper,  and 
in  his  charge  to  the  jury  Indulged  in  sarcastic  remarks 
respecdng  Hunter's  conduct,  tending  to  deprive  his 
testimony  of  any  weight  it  might  otherwise  have  had. 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


47 


"  For  the  prisoner,"  he  said,  "  you  have  had  one  gen- 
tleman called,  who  is  likewise  of  the  Faculty,  and  a 
very  able  man.  I  can  hardly  say  what  his  opinion  is, 
for  he  does  not  seem  to  have  formed  any  opinion  at 
all  of  the  matter."  Surely  this  may  not  have  been  the 
fault  of  Hunter;  no  sensible  man  will  commit  himself 
in  any  thing  if  he  have  not  the  proper  light  to  guide 
him,  as  would  seem  to  have  been  the  case  here. 

Although  he  never  took  any  active  part  in  politics, 
he  had  very  decided  views  upon  the  subject,  with  strong 
feelings  towards  the  Tory  side,  and  he  used  to  say  that 
he  "  wished  all  rascals  who  were  dissatisfied  with  their 
country  would  be  good  enough  to  leave  it."  He  had 
an  unconquerable  aversion  to  innovations,  cordially 
hated  democrats,  and  must  have  been  bitterly  opposed 
to  our  war.  In  writing  to  a  friend  about  his  museum, 
he  tells  him  to  send  any  one  he  pleases  except  a  dem- 
ocrat, for  "  I  would  rather,"  he  adds,  "  see  it  in  a  blaze, 
like  the  Bastile,  than  show  it  to  a  democrate,  let  his 
country  be  what  it  may." 

Great  as  Hunter  was,  and  disgusted  as  he  was  with  the 
pretensions  ofsomeofhis  contemporaries,  who  spared  no 
means  to  undervalue  and  disparage  his  labors,  he  was, 
really,  from  all  accounts,  an  humble-minded  man.  He 
was  generally,  if  not  always,  distrustful  of  the  accuracy 
of  his  own  labors,  and  he  seldom  allowed  anything  to 
pass  muster  that  had  not  been  subjected  again  and 
again  to  the  test  of  experiment,  or  to  the  scrutiny  of 
repeated  observation  and  careful  analysis.  He  was 
not  blind  to  his  own  imperfections.  His  constant  say- 
ing was  :  "We  are  but  beginning  to  learn  our  profes- 
sion." He  committed  errors,  but  they  were  errors  of 
reasoning,  not  of  observation,  a  faculty  which  few  men 
ever  possessed  in  so  high  a  degree.     Of  system  he 


.g  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

knew  nothingr,  or  at  most  very  little,  and  in  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  diversified  objects  of  his  museum,  he  freely- 
availed  himself  of  the  suggestions  of  his  friends  and  of 
the  services  of  trained  assistants. 

He  never,  so  far  as  I  can  learn,  wrote  a  syllable  in 
answer  to  any  of  the  aspersions  of  his  envious  and 
puny  detractors.  For  such  occupation  he  had  neither 
leisure  nor  inclination ;  besides,  he  was  too  well  aware 
of  the  truth  of  the  famous  maxim  that  no  man  was 
ever  written  down,  except  by  himself. 

Hunter,  notwithstanding  his  apparently  unrefined 
nature,  and  the  fact  that  he  was  always  deeply  absorbed 
in  his  studies  and  contemplations,  was  a  man  of  aes- 
thetic tastes.  He  was,  as  previously  stated,  fond  of 
animals,  enjoyed  a  beautiful  landscape,  and  loved  to 
look  at  fine  pictures,  of  which  he  had  a  choice  collection, 
chiefly  by  the  old  masters,  which,- after  his  death,  were 
sold  at  auction  for  ^800.  He  had  also  a  large  num- 
ber of  engravings,  including  many  of  Hogarth's.  His 
books,  many  of  which  were  annoted  in  the  margins, 
brought  only  ^160.* 

Of  his  religious  views,  if  any  he  had,  no  information 
has  been  transmitted  to  us,  and  the  subject  is  of  almost 
too  sacred  a  character  to  admit  of  speculation  or  con- 
jecture. Engaged,  as  he  incessantly  was,  for  upwards 
of  forty  years  as  an  interpreter  of  the  laws  of  organic 
life,  he  must  have  seen  God  daily  and  hourly  in  all 
His  glory,  majesty,  power,  and  goodness,  as  the  Cre- 
ator and  Author  of  all  things  in  the  heavens,  in  the  air, 
on  the  earth,  and  in  the  waters.  Free-thinker  he  might 
have  been,  and  probably  was,  but  he  could  not  have 

*  Sir  James  Paget's  Hunterian  Oration  for  1877,  p.  39. 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  TUPILS.  ^g 

been  an  Atheist,  or  denied  the  existence  of  creative 
power  and  wisdom. 

Notwithstanding  that  Hunter  enjoyed  for  many  years 
a  large  and  lucrative  practice,  as  the  most  renowned 
surgeon  of  the  English  metropolis,  it  is  not  surprising, 
when  we  consider  the  vast  sums  of  money  which  he 
lavished  upon  the  purchase  of  objects  of  natural  history 
and  pathological  specimens  for  enriching  his  museum, 
that  he  should  have  died  poor.*  It  may  safely  be 
asserted  that  he  was  the  only  man  who  ever  paid  ^500 
for  a  human  skeleton,  and  this  is  only  one  example  of  his 
extravagance.  Apart  from  his  museum,  to  the  con- 
struction of  which  he  devoted  so  many  of  the  best 
years  of  his  useful  life,  he  left  little  at  his  death  but 
debts.f  To  liquidate  these  absorbed  almost  the  whole 
of  his  estate,  real  and  personal.  The  result  was  that 
Mrs.  Hunter  and  her  two  surviving  children  were  left 
in  such  straitened  circumstances  as  to  require  for  sev- 
eral years  aid  from  the  king's  bounty,  kindly  procured 
by  disinterested  friends.  The  executors,  in  compliance 
with  the  provisions  in  the  will,  offered  the  museum,  in 
which  lay  the  only  hope  of  their  future  support,  to  the 
Government,  which  finally,  in  1 799,  six  years  after 
Hunter's  death,  by  a  vote  of  Parliament  purchased  it 
for  the  sum  of  ^15,000,  hardly  one-fifth  of  its  original 
cost.f      By  the  Government   the   museum  was   soon 

*  "  In  the  first  eleven  years  of  his  practice,  from  1763  to  1774,  his  income  never 
amounted  to  a  thousand  pounds  a  year;  in  the  year  1778  it  exceeded  that  sum; 
for  several  years  before  his  death  it  had  increased  to  five,  and  at  that  period  was 
above  six  thousand  pounds."     Life  by  Home. 

f  Hunter  directed  in  his  will  that,  in  the  event  of  refusal  by  the  Rrilish  Gov- 
ernment to  purchase  his  museum,  it  should  be  offered  to  any  foreign  government, 
and  this  effort  also  failing,  it  should  be  sold  entire.  In  1806  a  grant  was  voted  to 
the  College  for  ;^i  5,000  for  the  erection  of  a  building  for  the  care  of  the  museum, 
and  for  a  theatre  for  the  delivery  of  puiilic  lectures  on  anatomy  and  surgery.  A 
further  sum  of  ;{^I2,500  was  voted  for  the  same  object  in  1810. 


50 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


after  transferred  to  the  Corporation  of  Surgeons,  who 
the  following  year,  under  a  new  charter  obtained  from 
the  Crown,  assumed  the  name  and  title  of  the  Royal  Col- 
lege of  Surgeons.  The  funds  of  the  Corporation,  when 
this  trust  was  accepted,  were  in  a  very  low  condition, 
and  they  would  have  been  compelled  to  reject  it  if 
their  new  charter  had  not  given  them  permission,  by 
placing  the  whole  subject  of  the  surgical  education  of 
the  country  into  their  hands,  to  examine  students  for 
the  diploma  for  membership,  which  yields  annually  a 
large  revenue  for  the  increase  and  support  of  the  mu- 
seum and  of  the  College. 

One  of  the  difficulties  experienced  in  disposing  of  the 
museum  arose  from  the  fact  that,  at  the  time  of  Hunter's 
death,  the  attention  of  the  British  Government  was 
completely  absorbed  by  the  events  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution. When  Mr.  Pitt,  the  Prime  Minister,  was  con- 
sulted respecting  it,  he  exclaimed:  "What!  Buy  prep- 
arations !  Why,  I  have  not  money  enough  to  purchase 
gunpowder."  Through  the  influence,  however,  of  Lord 
Auckland  and  other  prominent  friends  of  the  family, 
Parliament  was  at  length  induced  to  take  it  at  the  paltry 
sum  above  mentioned,  a  number  of  distinguished  med- 
ical and  scientific  gentlemen  having  been  previously 
examined  in  reference  to  its  value  and  importance  in  a 
national  point  of  view. 

A  grant  so  important  was  not,  as  might  be  supposed, 
made  without  certain  stipulations.  Among  these  was 
one  that  the  collection  should  be  preserved  at  the 
expense  of  the  College,  that  the  College  should  at  an 
early  day  furnish  a  catalogue,  and  that  the  museum 
should  be  thrown  open,  not  only  to  the  medical  profes- 
sion, but  on  two  days  of  the  week  to  the  public.  In 
1806,  the  Council  of  the  College  instituted  two  annual 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


51 


courses  of  fifteen  lectures  each  on  anatomy  and  surgery, 
which  are  dehvered  by  Fellows  of  the  College  specially 
selected  for  the  purpose.  In  181 3,  chiefly  through  the 
influence  of  Dr.  Matthew  Baillle  and  Sir  Everard 
Home,  provision  was  made  for  the  delivery  of  an  an- 
nual oration  commemiorative  of  Hunter's  birthday,  a 
trust  which  has  been  sacredly  observed  ever  since.  It 
was  the  expressed  wish  of  the  founders  of  this  oration, 
that,  while  one  of  its  objects  should  be  to  honor  the 
memory  of  Hunter  by  reciting  his  merits  as  a  man  of 
genius,  a  discoverer,  and  an  original  investigator,  it 
should  be  rendered  especially  contributory  to  the  ad- 
vancement and  glory  of  surgery,  by  showing  what  sur- 
gery really  is,  what  underlies  its  study,  and  how  it  may 
be  best  cultivated  to  subserve  the  interests  of  human- 
ity and  of  science.  In  glancing  at  the  long  list  of  Fel- 
lows of  the  College  who  have  been  intrusted  with  this 
honorable  office  from  its  establishment  in  18 14  to  the 
present  time,  not  a  solitary  name  appears  that  is  not 
creditably  associated  with  the  progress  of  surgery, 
while  not  a  few  of  them  occupied  the  highest  position 
attainable  in  our  profession.  In  1877  and  in  1879  this 
duty  was  discharged,  respectively,  by  Sir  James  Paget 
and  Professor  George  Murray  Humphry,  than  whom 
Hunter  has  had  no  more  worthy  successors,  or  English 
surgery  more  able  thinkers  or  more  active  workers. 

With  only  three  exceptions,  there  has  been  no  break 
in  the  delivery  of  the  oration  since  it  went  into  opera- 
tion;  but  in  1850  the  Council  of  the  College  passed  a 
resolution  that  the  oration  thenceforth  should  be  de- 
livered only  every  second  year,  it  being  regarded  as 
"  a  hopeless  task  to  seek  for  something  new  every  year 
on  so  limited  a  subject." 

By  constant  additions  the  Hunterian  Museum  now 


52 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


forms  the  most  enormous  collection  of  anatomical, 
surgical,  and  zoological  preparations  in  the  world.  The 
only  approach  to  it  is  the  Dupuytren  Museum  at  Paris, 
which,  however,  is  chiefly  a  collection  of  pathological 
specimens.  The  collection  of  Hunter  at  the  time 
of  his  decease  embraced  nearly  14,000  preparations, 
wet  and  dry,  besides  numerous  shells  and  fossils. 
Every  specimen  was  accompanied,  when  practicable, 
by  a  brief  account  of  the  case  from  which  it  was 
obtained,  if  it  was  a  morbid  one ;  or  by  an  opinion 
of  the  animal,  bird,  reptile,  or  insect,  if  it  was  new 
to  him."--'  The  museum  as  at  present  constituted  is 
especially  rich  in  specimens  of  ethnology  and  com- 
parative anatomy.  One  is  also  struck  in  passing 
through  this  vast  Golgotha  with  the  immense  num- 
ber of  human  urinary  and  biliary  calculi,  as  .well  as  in- 
testinal concretions,  and  calculi  from  the  inferior  ani- 
mals. Only  recently  the  museum  was  enriched  by  a 
series  of  the  most  beautiful  and  valuable  dissections,  in 
the  form  of  wet  preparations,  arranged  in  bottles,  of 
the  muscles,  bloodvessels,  and  nerves  of  the  human  body, 
the  work  of  a  trained  museum  hand,  not  a  medical  man, 
begun  by  Dr.  James  Bell  Pettigrew,  and  carried  on 
under  the  supervision  of  Professor  Flower,  the  present 
very  intelligent,  popular,  and  distinguished  curator. 
Nothing  of  the  kind  could  be  more  complete,  elegant,  or 
Instructive.  Large  as  is  the  edifice  in  which  the  mu- 
seum is  contained,  it  will  soon  be  too  small  for  the 
purpose  for  which  it  was  erected.  It  is  highly  creditable 
to  the  surgical  profession  of  England  that  every  mem- 
ber of  it  takes  a  deep  personal  interest  in  the  subject, 
and  closely  identifies  himself  with  its  prosperity.     No 

*  Henry  Clinc,  Hunterian  Oration  for  1816.     Adams's  Life,  p.  262. 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  r^ 

labor  or  expense  is  spared  to  extend  its  growth  and  to 
promote  its  usefulness.  Annexed  to  this  enormous 
collection  of  objects  of  anatomy,  surgery,  and  natural 
history,  is  the  library  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons, 
now  numbering  nearly  38,000  volumes,  or  nearly 
15,000  separate  works,  embracing  copies  of  all  the 
works  of  the  fathers  of  the  profession,  and  39,000 
tracts,  pamphlets,  essays,  reports,  and  theses.  Hunter 
himself  had  no  library  in  the  true  sense  of  the  term.  He 
read  little,  and  had  no  great  respect  for  other  men's  wTit- 
ings  or  opinions.  Nevertheless,  he  was  always  scru- 
pulously honest  in  awarding  in  his  writings  and  pub- 
lished papers  to  every  man  his  due ;  in  other  words, 
he  never  claimed  or  appropriated  what  was  not  his 
own.  His  pupils  had  often  to  tell  him  that  such  and 
such  a  discovery  had  been  made  before.  His  favorite 
volume  was  the  book  of  nature,  which  he  kept  con- 
stantly spread  out  before  him,  studying  it,  not  by 
fits  and  starts,  but  steadily  and  continuously,  day  by 
day  and  night  by  night,  for  upwards  of  forty  years 
of  his  busy  and,  as  it  finally  proved  to  be,  eventful  life. 
The  executors  of  Hunter  were  Dr.  Matthew  Baillie* 
and  Sir  Everard  Home,  the  one  his  nephew  on  his  sis- 
ter's side,  and  the  other  his  brother-in-law.  To  the  lat- 
ter alone,  however,  was  confided  the  care  of  his  MSS., 


*  Dr.  Baillie  was  the  most  popular  and  distinguished  physician  of  his  day  in  Eng- 
land. He  was  a  pupil  of  his  uncle,  Dr.  William  Hunter,  a  brother  of  Joanna  Baillie, 
the  authoress,  and  the  last  medical  pian  in  London  who  carried  the  celebrated  gold- 
headed  cane,  now  in  the  possession  of  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians.  In  1793 
he  published  his  celebrated  work  on  Morbid  Anatomy,  for  a  long  time  the  only 
treatise  on  the  .subject  in  the  English  language.  It  is  he  of  whom  the  celebrated 
anecdote  is  told  about  the  oysters.  Having  listened  one  evening  until  he  was 
thoroughly  disgusted  to  the  prosy  account  of  a  lady  who  imagined  herself  ill  he 
told  her  he  was  going  to  the  opera,  and  taking  his  leave  had  nearly  reached  the 
front  door  when  she  screamed  from  the  head  of  the  stairs  to  know  whether  she 
might  eat  some  oysters.   "  Yes,  ma'am,  shells  and  all." 


54 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


covering-  not  fewer  than  twenty  folio  volumes,  with  the 
express  injunction  that  he  should  prepare  a  catalogue 
of  the  museum,  without  which  it  would  be  compara- 
tively valueless.  These  precious  papers  were  sent  to 
Home  in  1800  by  Mr.  Clift,  the  conservator  of  the 
museum,  and  for  a  short  time  one  of  Hunter's  most 
valued  assistants.  Instead  of  carrying  out  the  wishes 
of  the  testator,  Home,  it  is  asserted,  appropriated  his 
MSS.  to  his  own  use,  and,  in  1823,  threw  them  into 
the  chimney  of  his  study,  the  flame  thus  kindled  being, 
according  to  his  own  confession,  so  great  and  alarm- 
ing as  to  call  out  the  fire-engines !  The  papers  em- 
braced not  only  what  Hunter  had  written  on  compara- 
tive and  pathological  anatomy,  but  also  his  lectures 
on  surgery ;  everything,  in  fact,  but  the  museum 
itself.*  During  the  twenty-three  years  that  Home  re- 
tained these  MSS.  he  contributed  a  greater  number  of 
papers  to  the  Royal  Society  than  any  other  Fellow  of 
that  distinguished  body,  besides  publishing  an  elabo- 
rate work  on  comparative  anatomy,  most  if  not  all  of 
which  had,  it  is  alleged,  been  purloined,  at  least  sub- 
stantially, from  Hunter's  portly  volumes.  It  is  hard  to 
believe  that  such  a  theft  could  have  been  perpetrated 
by  any  rational  being,  and  yet  such  would  seem  to  have 
been  the  fact.  Possibly,  however,  its  atrocity  may,  after 
all,  not  have  been  so  great  as  it  is  generally  believed  to 
have  been.  Sir  James  Paget  in  his  admirable  Hunterian 
oration  for  1877,  expresses  the  belief  that,  through  the 
care  and  fidelity  of  Mr.  Clift,  the  MSS.  had  been,  in 


*  In  burning  these  MSS.  Home  asserted  tliat  he  had  simply  acted  in  accord- 
ance with  his  ijrother-in-law's  injunctions.  I  cannot,  however,  find  any  refer- 
ence to  this  subject  in  Hunter's  will,  and  as  he  died  very  suddenly  and  unex- 
pectedly it  is  not  very  probable  that  any  such  instruction  was  ever  delivered. 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  ce 

great  degree,   utilized  to   Hunter's  advantage  before 
they  were  committed  to  the  flame.* 

Among  the  manuscripts  were  nine  foHo  volumes  of 
dissections  of  animals,  one  volume  on  the  natural  his- 
tory of  vegetables,  and  numerous  fasciculi  on  com- 
parative and  pathological  anatomy.  "  The  great  masses 
of  these  writings  were  elaborate  descriptions  by  Hun- 
ter himself  of  his  dissections,  investigations,  and  dis- 
coveries, and  referred  almost  exclusively  to  the  numer- 
ous preparations  in  his  museum,  which  were  unintelli- 
gible, and,  in  many  instances,  useless  without  them."-!- 

Of  Hunter's  vast  labors  as  an  orio:inal  investieator  I 
shall  not  attempt  to  speak  in  detail ;  for  to  do  this 
would  carry  me  far  beyond  the  limits  to  which  I  am  com- 
pelled to  restrict  myself  A  brief  allusion  to  a  few  must 
suffice.  We  find  that  the  first  ten  years  of  his  profes- 
sional life  were  devoted  to  the  study  of  human  anatomy, 
of  which,  as  might  readily  be  supposed,  he  made  himself 
a  thorough  master,  and  added  certain  facts  to  the  stock 
of  knowledge  previously  unknown.  Subsequently  he 
devoted  a  large  share  of  the  time  which  he  was  able  to 
snatch  from  his  practice  to  researches  in  comparative  an- 
atomy, physiology,  and  surgery,  and  to  the  extension, 
classification,  and  arrangement  of  his  museum.  The 
composition  of  his  various  treatises  and  the  papers  which 
he  contributed  to  the  Philosophical  Transactions  also 

*  Mr.  Clift  was  the  first  curator  of  the  museum,  and  served  in  that  capacity  up- 
wards of  forty  years.  In  speaking  of  Hunter's  papers  Paget  remarks  :  "  Ail  that  was 
most  important  in  the  manuscripts  is  now  published,  the  greater  part  by  Mr.  Owen 
in  the  Essays  and  Observations  and  in  his  Physiological  Catalogue  of  the  College 
Museum.  Whatever  related  in  any  way  to  the  Hunterian  specimens  of  morbid 
anatomy  is  printed  in  my  Pathological  Catalogue.  The  notes  of  the  lectures  are 
lost,  and  so  also  are  some  observations  on  surgery ;  but,  on  the  whole,"  adds 
Paget,  "  I  think  that  nearly  all  that  was  of  great  value  was  saved  thrt)Ugh  Clift's 
fidelity." 

f  Chapman's  Medical  Institutions  of  the  United  Kingdom,  p.  104,  1S70. 


c5  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

consumed  not  a  little  portion  of  his  time.  He  was  the 
first  to  make  known  the  existence  of  lymphatic  vessels 
in  birds,  and  of  the  communication  of  the  air-cells  of  the 
winof-bones  of  birds  with  the  air-cells  of  the  lunp-s  ;  to 
describe  the  organ  of  hearing  in  fishes ;  to  trace  the 
connection  of  the  arteries  in  the  gravid  uterus  with  the 
placenta ;  to  explain  the  nature  of  inflammation  of  the 
veins  ;  to  point  out,  on  anatomical  and  physiological 
principles,  the  vast  chains  of  sympathy  existing  be- 
tween the  different  organs  and  structures  of  the  body, 
and  to  perform  an  elaborate  series  of  experiments  upon 
the  temperature  of  different  animals,  birds,  reptiles,  in- 
sects, trees,  and  vegetables,  upon  the  blood,  and  upon 
man  in  health  and  disease.  He  was  the  first  to  inter- 
pret correctly  the  erosion  of  the  stomach  by  the  action 
of  the  gastric  juice  after  death,  an  effect  previously 
erroneously  attributed  to  pathological  conditions. 

He  was  the  author  of  the  once  famous  doctrine,  long 
current  amongr  medical  men,  that  two  diseases,  or  two 
morbid  processes  of  dissimilar  nature,  in  the  same  organ 
or  in  the  same  part,  cannot  go  on  at  the  same  time. 
That  this  theory  is  true  to  a  very  considerable  extent  is 
unquestionable,  although  it  is  of  much  more  limited  ap- 
plication than  Hunter  had  imagined.  Thus,  for  instance, 
to  go  no  further,  scarlatina  and  typhoid  fever,  phthisis 
and  cancer  of  the  lungs,  gout  and  dysentery  are  sel- 
dom found  in  association,  and  then  generally  only  as 
accidental  occurrences,  and  not  as  the  result  of  any 
special  laws.  This  doctrine  has  a  much  wider  range 
and  a  more  practical  significance  in  surgery  than  in 
medicine,  inasmuch  as  it  lies  at  the  root  of  the  treat- 
ment by  counter-irritation,  often  so  useful  in  chronic 
diseases  of  the  joints  and  of  other  parts  of  the  body. 

Hunter's  ideas  of  the  formation  of  monsters,  a  sub- 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  cy 

ject  which  at  one  time  engaged  much  of  his  attention, 
were  far  in  advance  of  those  of  his  age,  and  strikingly 
in    harmony  with   the    pecuHarities    of  his    reasoning 
powers  and  his  methods  of  study.      Prior  to  his  inves- 
tigations, no  attempts  had  been  made  to  explain  the 
formation   of  this   class  of  beings  upon   physiological, 
philosophical,  or  scientific  principles.      Most  writers  re- 
garded them  as  the  offspring  of  chance,  as  freaks  of 
nature,  as  proofs  of  the  divine  wrath  or  as  effects  of 
disease  of  fetal  life.     Even  the  theories  of  Huber  and 
Malacarne,  propounded  so  late  as  the  middle  of  the  last 
century,  were  more  or  less  tinctured  with  the  superstition 
of  the  times.  Hunter,  from  a  careful  survey  of  the  subject, 
founded  upon  the  dissection  of  different  classes  of  ani- 
mals, concluded  that  these  beings  are  simply  so  many 
deviations  from  the  established  order  of  nature,  de- 
pendent upon  an  arrest  of  development  in  one  case, 
and  upon  an  excess  of  development  in  another;  and 
that  the  cause  in  all  exists  in  the  primordial  cell,  in  per- 
verted nutrition,  or  in  a  disturbance  of  the  ordinary  laws 
of  formative  action,  a  fact  now  universally  admitted  by 
teratologists.     In  framing  this  theory  he  did  not  confine 
himself  to  the  investigation  of  animal  matter,  but  de- 
rived important  illustrations  from  the  study  of  vegetable 
life,  and  even  of  crystals.     Indeed,  he  seldom,  in  the 
investigation   of  any  subject  that  concerned  the  phe- 
nomena of  life,  whether  in  health  or  in  disease,  limited 
himself  to  the  animal  kingdom.     His  capacious  mind 
took  a  higher  view  of  things,  and  embraced  every  variety 
and  form  of  organic  structure.    In  his  principles  of  sur- 
gery he  attempts,  in  several  places,  to  establish  a  con- 
nection between  animal  and  vegetable  pathology.     He 
refers  more  especially  to  the  changes  induced   in  the 
oak-leaf,  and  endeavors  to  deduce  from  these  changes 

6 


eg  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

illustrations  in  support  of  his  theory  of  inflammation. 
Again,  in  his  experiments  on  heat,  he  requests  Jenner 
to  ascertain  the  temperature  of  trees  and  plants  ;  and 
in  speaking  of  sympathy,  he  remarks  that  "  the  most 
simple  sympathy  is  perhaps  to  be  found  in  vegetables, 
these  being  much  more  simple  than  the  most  simple 
animal." 

Vegetable  pathology  had  made  too  litde  progress, 
if  indeed  it  had  any  existence,  in  Hunter's  day  to  en- 
able him  to  grapple  with  a  subject  of  such  vast  pro- 
portions. It  is,  in  fact,  only  recently  that  the  subject 
began  to  attract  the  attention  of  scientists,  and  it  was, 
therefore,  not  without  the  deepest  interest  that  I  listened 
along  with  many  other  medical  men,  for  upwards  of  an 
hour,  to  the  admirable  and  masterly  address  of  Sir 
James  Paget,  on  "Elemental  Pathology,"  delivered  in 
the  Patholoeical  Section  of  the  British  Medical  Asso- 
ciation,  at  the  annual  meeting,  in  Cambridge,  August, 
1880.  In  this  address  are  adduced  numerous  examples 
of  changes  induced  in  trees  and  plants  by  injury  and 
disease,  and  of  the  close  resemblance  which  these 
changes  bear  to  many  of  those  that  are  witnessed  under 
similar  circumstances  in  man  and  other  animals. 

Color  blindness  attracted  his  attention,  and  he  in- 
duced Jenner  to  investigate  the  matter  experimentally. 
He  was  the  first  to  describe  accurately  the  gubernacu- 
lum  of  the  testis.  In  a  word,  it  is  difficult  to  say  what 
he  did  not  do  or  discover.  His  treatise  on  the  blood 
and  on  the  vascular  system  is  a  masterly  production,  com- 
posed solely  from  the  standpoint  of  personal  observation 
and  experiment ;  and  what  is  true  of  this  production  is 
equally  true  of  his  surgical  writings.  Every  page  bears 
the  impress  of  original  work,  of  patient  research,  of 
carefully  conducted  experiment,  and  of  inductive  rea- 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  rg 

soning.  His  alms,  as  an  author,  were  of  the  loftiest 
character;  he  took  nothingr  for  ^ranted,  nothine  on 
credit,  but  subjected  everything  before  he  made  It  his 
own  to  the  closest  scrutiny  and  to  the  most  searching 
analysis.  He  was  too  proud  to  borrow  knowledge  from 
others ;  too  independent  to  rely  upon  their  labors. 
Second-hand  knowledge  he  despised  ;  hence  we  seldom 
find  any  reference  in  his  published  works  to  the  writings 
of  his  contemporaries  or  predecessors.  Everything 
that  emanated  from  his  pen  was  stamped  with  the  seal 
of  originality.  One  is  surprised  in  contemplating  his 
character  to  find  how  a  man  who  was  so  Incessantly 
occupied  with  the  duties  of  a  large  and  laborious  prac- 
tice, and  who  had,  In  so  many  various  ways,  so  many 
calls  upon  his  time,  could  have  performed  such  prodi- 
gies of  labor  ;  labor  requiring  such  an  enormous  pres- 
sure upon  his  mental  and  physical  powers.  The  mystery^ 
however.  Is  solved  when  we  remember  that  he  rose 
regularly  at  4  o'clock  In  the  morning  and  seldom  re- 
tired before  1 2  o'clock  at  night.  The  compliment  which 
Cecil  paid  to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  was  equally  deserved 
by  Hunter:  "I  know  he  can  labor  terribly."  His  mind 
was  Incessantly  in  his  work.  A  regiment  of  such  men 
would  not  be  long  in  building  a  tunnel  under  the  Alps, 
or  erectlncT  a  bridofe  over  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 

As  stated  in  a  previous  part  of  this  memoir.  Hunter 
was  at  one  time  deeply  interested  In  the  study  of  ani- 
mal and  vegetable  temperature,  and,  as  was  his  custom 
in  everything  he  undertook  to  Investigate,  he  appealed 
to  personal  observation,  in  which  he  was  ably  assisted 
by  his  faithful  friend  and  pupil,  Dr.  Jenner.  These  re- 
searches, which  were.  It  would  seem,  originally  sug- 
gested, by  the  well-known  experiments  of  Dr.  George 
Fordyce  and  Sir   Charles  Blagden,  in  which  they  ex- 


5o  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

posed  themselves  with  impunity  to  heated  air  at  a  high 
temperature,  occupied  several  years,  and  embraced  a 
great  variety  of  animals,  birds,  and  reptiles,  and  brought 
out  some  very  interesting  and  useful  results.  He  had 
also  studied  the  habits  of  hibernating  animals,  and  from 
these  and  other  considerations  was  led  to  believe 
that  animals  might  be  frozen  and  again  brought  to 
life,  and  he  thought  the  operation  might  be  extended 
to  the  human  subject ;  that  a  person  might  be  frozen, 
lie  in  an  unconscious  condition  for  an  indefinite  time, 
even  for  a  hundred  years,  and  then  be  resuscitated. 
He  even  dreamed  that  the  scheme,  if  successful,  might 
enable  him  to  make  his  fortune  !  How  this  Rip  Van 
Winkle  affair  terminated  never  transpired. 

It  is  not  a  little  surprising,  when  one  reflects  upon 
Hunter's  philosophical  mind  and  his  keen  percep- 
tive and  reasoning  powers,  that  he  should  have  enter- 
tained such  very  crude  notions  respecting  the  origin 
of  life,  insisting  that  life  is  not  the  result  simply  of  or- 
ganization, but  of  something  superadded  to  animal  and 
vegetable  matter,  not  unlike  electricity.  Every  sciolist 
of  the  present  day  knows  that  life  is  inherent  in  organic 
matter,  that  all  growth,  animal  and  vegetable,  is  insep- 
arable from  cell-development, — omnis  cellula  e  celhda, — 
and  that  life,  as  such,  has  no  independent  existence. 
That  such  very  odd  ideas  should  have  floated  through 
the  brain  of  the  founder  of  scientific  surgery  is,  I  re- 
peat it,  strange  enough,  and  yet  they  may  perhaps  be 
pardoned  when  we  reflect  that  he  lived  in  an  age  when 
science,  properly  so-called,  had  as  yet  made  no  satisfac- 
tory advances,  when,  in  fact,  it  was  still  slumbering  in 
its  cradle  ;  but  that  John  Abernethy,  one  of  his  most 
brilliant  and  intelligent  pupils,  and  one  of  the  most 
able  interpreters  of  his  doctrines,  should,  a  quarter  of 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  gj 

a  century  after  the  death  of  Hunter,  have  indorsed  and 
pubHcly  defended  those  views,  is  one  of  those  curious 
anomahes  which  are  beyond  our  comprehension,  and 
yet  such  as  every  one  acquainted  with  the  history  of 
his  career  knows  to  have  been  the  fact/-' 

It  was  the  indorsement  ot  this  pecuHar  notion  of  Hfe, 
and  of  its  existence  apart  from  organization,  that  led  to 
the  sad  controversy  between  Abernethy  and  Lawrence, 
who  strenuously  supported  the  opposite  view,  now 
universally  admitted  by  all  scientists  and  philosophers. 

Although  Hunter  was  an  incessant  worker,  he  de- 
rived  a  vast  deal  of  aid  in  the  construction  of  his  mu- 
seum from  his  assistants ;  Indeed,  without  their  help, 
It  would  have  been  a  comparatively  meagre  affair. 
His  pupils  and  intimate  friends  also  made  Important 
contributions.  He  never  hesitated  to  press  into  his 
service  any  one  who  might  be  useful  to  him,  and  the 
surest  avenue  to  his  heart  was  some  specimen  of  anat- 
omy or  natural  history.  Among  the  young  men  who 
were  especially  valuable  to  him  in  this  capacity  were 
Mr.  William  Hewson,  Mr.  Bell,  Mr.  Everard  Home,  and 
Mr.  Clift.  Hewson,  who  became  so  celebrated  as  an 
anatomist,  was  born  at  Hexham  In  Northumberland 
in  1739,  and  resided  with  John  Hunter  until  the  latter 
went    Into    the    army,    soon    after   which    he    became 

*  "  Mr.  Hunter,"  says  Mr.  Abernethy,  "  was  convinced  that  life  was  not  the 
result  of  organization,  and,  though  many  have  conjectured  life  to  be  something 
not  dependent  on  structure,  Mr.  Hunter  was  the  first  who  deduced  the  opinion,  as  a 
legitimate  consequence  of  legitimate  facts,  that  life  actually  constructed  the  very 
means  by  which  it  carried  on  its  various  processes,  and  that  it  could  operate  in  semi- 
fluid and  even  fluid  substances.  His  intelligent  mind  further  perceived  that  no 
system  of  physiology  could  be  perfect  that  did  not  e(|ually  explain  the  moriiid 
as  well  as  the  healthy  actions  of  life.  I  may  say  that  he  discovered  a  vital 
principle  in  physiology  active  in  producing  a  correct  pathology.  Tlierefore  he 
appears  to  me  as  a  new  character  in  our  profession,  and  briefly  to  express  his 
peculiar  merit  I  may  call  him  the  first  and  great  physionosologist,  or  expositor 
of  the  nature  of  disease."  —  Hunterian  Oration  for  1819,  p.  28. 


52  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

associated  with  Dr.  William  Hunter,  whom  he  occa- 
sionally assisted  in  the  delivery  of  his  lectures.  In 
1770  he  set  up  for  himself  as  an  anatomical  teacher, 
and  attracted  crowds  of  students.  His  works  on  the 
Blood  and  on  the  Lymphatic  System  established  his 
reputation  as  an  original  observer,  and  have  left  an 
enduring  impression  upon  the  medical  literature  of 
his  age  and  country.  His  death  was  caused  by  a  dis- 
section wound  in  1774,  in  the  thirty-fifth  year  of  his 
age.  Home,  who  spent  many  years  in  Hunter's  service, 
was  on  the  most  familiar  terms  with  him,  always  at- 
tended to  his  practice  when  Hunter  was  obliged  to 
absent  himself  from  town,  on  account  of  ill-health  or 
professional  calls,  and  in  1792  succeeded  him  in  his 
office  of  lecturer  on  surger)^  Mr.  Bell,  who  was  an  ex- 
cellent draughtsman  and  an  accomplished  practical  anat- 
omist, was  domiciled  with  him  for  upwards  of  ten  years, 
duringwhichhemadenumerousdrawingsforhim,  as  well 
as  many  preparations,  which  added  greatly  to  the  value 
of  his  collection.  Mr.  Andre,  another  assistant,  spent 
much  of  his  time  with  Hunter,  and  was  of  great  service 
in  arranging  his  specimens.  Clift,  "  a  poor  Cornish 
lad,"  as  he  is  styled  by  Sir  James  Paget,  took  up  his 
residence  with  him  only  about  twenty  months  before 
his  death.  During  this  short  time,  however,  he  became 
warmly  attached  to  him,  and  after  the  sad  event  which 
severed  their  connection,  he  remained  true  to  his  in- 
terests, and  did  all  he  could  to  preserve  his  museum 
and  his  MSS.  He  is  represented  as  having  been  a 
most  amiable  gentleman,  of  very  popular  manners,  and 
very  fond  of  telling  anecdotes  about  Hunter.  Hunter, 
in  his  eagerness  to  obtain  specimens  from  his  friends, 
often  played  the  part  of  an  importunate  beggar.  This 
feeling  grew  with  his  years,  and  at  length  amounted 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  5^ 

to  a  positive  passion.  Late  in  life  he  erected  a  large 
and  costly  building  for  the  accommodation  of  his 
immense  collection  of  objects  of  anatomy  and  natural 
history  ;  and  that  his  labors  might  not  be  hidden  from 
the  public,  he  threw  it  open  twice  a  year, — in  October, 
to  the  medical  profession,  and  in  May,  to  the  nobility 
and  to  scientific  men. 

In  order  to  show  the  high  estimate  which  is  placed 
upon  the  Hunterian  Museum  by  the  British  Govern- 
ment, in  a  national  point  of  view,  as  a  nursery  for  the 
study  of  biology  in  its  widest  sense,  it  is  only  neces- 
sary to  state  that  its  Board  of  Trustees  consists  of  the 
highest  officers  of  the  Crown,  including  the  Prime  Min- 
ister, and  of  the  President  of  the  Royal  Society,  the 
President  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  and  the 
President  of  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians,  together 
with  many  distinguished  citizens  representing  the  more 
exalted  walks  of  life.  The  Royal  College  of  Surgeons, 
which  is  the  custodian  of  the  Museum,  was  incorpo- 
rated by  royal  charter  in  1800,  and  is  governed  by  a 
council  consisting  of  twenty-four  Fellows,  whose  presi- 
dent in  1880  was  Mr.  John  Eric  Erichsen,  the  distin- 
guished surgeon.  What  is  called  the  Court  of  Exam- 
iners consists  of  twenty  Fellows,  whose  duty  it  is  to 
investigate  the  claims  of  all  such  candidates  as  may 
from  time  to  time  present  themselves  for  admission 
into  the  College.  Until  recendy  no  provision  had  been 
made  for  examinations  in  medicine,  which  now,  very 
properly,  hold  a  prominent  place.  The  College,  as 
will  thus  be  perceived,  is  an  immense  corporation,  of 
vast  influence,  binding  all  the  surgeons  of  England  in 
one  great  brotherhood,  and  virtually  having  charge  of 
the  educational  interests  of  the  surgical  profession,  as 
the  Royal  College  of  Physicians  has  of  the  medical. 


5j^  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

To  form  anything  like  a  correct  idea  of  the  extent  of 
the  Hunterian  Museum,  and  of  the  work  that  is  done 
by  the  College  of  Surgeons  for  its  increase  and  preserv- 
ation, it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  visit  it,  and  to  spend 
not  days  but  weeks,  and  even  months,  in  the  examina- 
tion of  its  vast  riches.  The  collection,  in  its  present 
form,  is  a  vast  storehouse  of  specimens  of  anatomy,  hu- 
man and  comparative,  histology,  physiology,  morbid 
structure,  plants,  and  fossils,  of  which  nearly  fourteen 
thousand  were  originally  supplied  from  the  Hunterian 
collection  at  the  time  of  its  purchase  by  the  Government. 
The  specimens  are  all  classified  and  arranged  in  the 
order  of  their  affinities,  and  are  in  the  most  perfect  state 
of  preservation,  notwithstanding  that  many  of  them 
are  upwards  of  one  hundred  years  old.'^ 

*  The  present  condition  of  the  Museum  will  be  rendered  apparent  by  the 
subjoined  account  copied  from  the  Calendar  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons 
for  1880.  The  original  collection  was  estimated  to  consist  of  13,682  specimens, 
distributed  under  the  following  heads  : 

Physiological  Department,  or  Normal  Stritctnres. 

Physiological  preparations  in  spirit,     .....  3745 

Osteological  preparations,   .......  965 

Dry                           "             617 

Zoological                "             .......  1968 

Fossils : 

Vertebrate, 1215 

Invertebrate,     ........  2202 

Plants,      .........  292 

Pathological  Department,  or  Abnormal  Structures. 
Preparations  in  spirit,  .......     1084 


Dry  preparations  (including  bones), 
Calculi  and  concretions, 
Monsters  and  malformations, 

Microscopic  preparations, 
Of  the  additions  by  which  the  size  and  v 
materially  increased  since  it  came  into  the  possession  of  the  College,  very  many 
have  been  presented  by  Fellows  and  Members  of  the  College,  and  other  persons 
interested  in  scientific  pursuits.  Among  the  largest  contributions  from  this 
source  have  been  the  collection,  consisting  of  847  specimens,  presented  in  i8ii 


625 
536 
218 

215 

alue  of  the  Collection  have  been  so 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPIlI  g^ 

Catalogues  of  the  Museum  were  prepared  many 
years  ago  by  Professor  Richard  Owen  and  Mr.,  now 
Sir  James,  Paget,  the  latter  having  charge  of  the  patho- 
logical specimens.  The  first  curator,  or,  as  he  is  styled 
in  England,  conservator,  of  the  Museum  was  Mr.  Wil- 
liam Clift,  Hunter's  last  assistant,  who  held  the  office 
from  1800  to  1842,  when  he  was  succeeded  by  Pro- 
fessor Owen,  who,  in  1856,  gave  way  to  Mr.  Ouekett. 
The  present  Incumbent  is  Professor  William  H.  Flower, 

Not  the  least  Interestlnsf  feature  of  the  Colleofe  is 
the  long  list  of  portraits  of  distinguished  Fellows  and 
of  English  surgeons  of  prominence  a  short  time  ante- 
rior to  the  establishment  of  the  College,  as  John  Ban- 
ister, William  Cowper,  William  Cheselden,  Perclvall 
Pott,  and  John  Hunter  himself.  Among  the  more 
recent  ones  are  those  of  William  Bllzard,  Anthony 
Carlisle,  Caesar  Hawkins,  George  Guthrie,  Samuel 
Cooper,  William  Lawrence,  and  William  Ferguson. 
Among  the  busts  which  grace  the  halls  of  the  College 
may  be  enumerated  those  of  Abernethy,  Everard 
Home,  Cline,  Dalrymple,  Arnott,  Travers,  Charles 
Bell,  LIston,  Lawrence,  Green,  and  Brodle. 


by  Sir  William  Blizard,  and  a  valuable  series  of  pathological  specimens  presented 
in  185 1  by  Sir  Stephen  L.  Hammick.  At  the  same  time  the  Council  of  the 
College  have  availed  themselves  of  various  opportunities  as  they  have  occurred 
to  purchase  specimens  of  interest,  especially  at  the  dispersion  of  private  ana- 
tomical and  pathological  museums,  as  that  of  Sir  A.  Lever  in  1806,  of  Mr. 
Jo>hua  Brookes  in  1828,  of  Mr.  Heaviside  in  1829,  Mr.  Langstaff  in  1835,  Mr. 
South  in  the  same  year,  Mr.  Howship  and  Mr.  Taunton  in  1841,  Mr.  Liston  in 

1842,  Mr.  Walker  in  1843,  '^"'^  deserving  of  especial  mention  on  account  of  the 
great  number  and  value  of  the  specimens  acquired,  those  of  .Sir  Astley  Cooper  in 

1843,  and  Dr.  Barnard  Davis  in  1880. 

The  Histological  Collection,  of  which  the  215  Hunterian  specimens — prepared 
by  Hewson — constitute  the  nucleus,  was  chiefly  formed  by  the  late  Professor 
Quekett,  with  considerable  additions  by  purchase  from  Dr.  Tweedy  J.  Todd, 
Mr.  Nasmyth,  and  Professor  Lenhossek.  It  now  contains  ujiwards  of  12,000 
specimens,  all  arranged  and  catalogued  so  as  to  be  readily  available  for  reference. 


55  jbHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

•  When  John  Hunter  entered  upon  the  active  duties 
of  his  profession  very  Httle  accuracy  had  been  attained 
in  the  study  of  medicine,  or  in  that  of  natural  history, 
in  any  of  their  branches.  Linnseus  had  pubHshed  his 
Systema  Naturse  and  his  classification  of  plants ;  Mor- 
gagni  had  issued  at  Venice  his  masterly  treatise  on 
morbid  anatomy,  entitled  De  Sedibus  et  Causis  Mor- 
borum;  Albert  von  Haller  was  busily  engaged  upon 
his  immortal  work  on  physiology,  and  Buffon  had  given 
to  the  world  the  first  five  or  six  volumes  of  his  equally 
immortal  work  on  natural  history.  Comparative  an- 
atomy was  in  an  embryonic  condition,  and  pathology 
was  rocking  to  and  fro  in  the  brains  of  Gaubius,  De 
Haen,  and  Van  Swieten.  Science,  properly  so  termed, 
that  is  science  in  its  largest  and  widest  sense,  was  with- 
out a  master.  Joseph  Priestly,  in  1774,  discovered 
oxygen,  or  dephlogisticated  air,  as  he  called  it,  and 
along  with  Black,  of  Edinburgh,  and  Lavoisier,  one  of 
the  victims  of  the  French  Revolution,  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  scientific  chemistry.  Bordeu  and  Carmichael 
Smith  foreshadowed  the  advent  of  general  anatomy, 
which,  under  the  plastic  genius  of  Xavier  Bichat,  at  the 
close  of  the  century,  became  a  new  branch  of  study, 
and  a  powerful  element  of  scientific  progress,  under 
the  name  of  histology,  by  which  it  is  now  universally 
known.  The  microscope  had  as  yet  no  scientific  signifi- 
cance, or  any  definite  use  as  an  instrument  capable 
of  elucidating  healthy  and  morbid  structure.  Surgery 
in  England  at  the  commencement  of  Hunter's  career, 
as  well  as  for  a  long  time  after,  was  at  the  lowest  pos- 
sible ebb,  sterile,  and,  as  intimated  in  a  former  sen- 
tence, strongly  scented  with  the  odor  of  the  barber- 
shop. Of  works  on  medicine  there  were  none  worthy 
of  the  name,  and  medicine  itself  was,  If  possible,  in  a 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  gy 

more  degraded  condition  than  surgery,  England  had 
not  one  sohtary  medical  college,  and  in  the  few  private 
schools  which  then  existed  in  the  metropolis,  the  teach- 
ing was  of  the  poorest  and  most  limited  kind.  Brom- 
field,  at  St.  George's  Hospital,  embraced  anatomy  and 
surgery  in  a  course  of  thirty-six  lectures;  Nicholls,  a 
man  of  note  in  his  day,  contented  himself  with  a  nearly 
equal  number  of  lectures  on  anatomy,  physiology'', 
pathology,  and  midwifery;  and  Nourse,  in  1748,  at 
St.  Bartholomew's  Hospital,  taught  "  totam  rem  ana- 
tomicam,"  in  twenty-three  lectures,  hardly  as  many 
as  the  modern  teacher  devotes  to  the  description  of 
the  skeleton.  The  surgical  lectures  of  William  Hun- 
ter, at  his  school  in  Great  Windmill  Street,  could  not 
have  been  conducted  on  a  large  scale.  He  was  a  great 
anatomist  but  no  surgeon.  It  is  difficult  for  any  one 
at  the  present  day  to  believe  that  no  distinct  or  sepa- 
rate professorship  of  surgery  existed  in  the  University  of 
Edinburgh,  so  renowned  as  a  seat  of  medical  educa- 
tion,  until  1831,  when  the  chair  that  has  since  existed 
was  created  for  Mr.  Turner.  Up  to  that  time  surgery 
was  taught  by  Monro,  the  third,  merely  as  an  append- 
age to  anatomy,  in  a  few  hurried  lectures,  towards  the 
close  of  the  session.  The  labors  and  investigations  of 
John  Hunter  formed  the  dawn  of  a  new  era  in  surgical 
science  ;  he  touched  the  corpse  with  his  magic  wand, 
and  it  sprang,  like  a  young  Hercules,  to  its  feet; 
and  what  he  accomplished  for  his  specialty,  William 
Hunter  accomplished  for  midwifery,  and  William  Cullcn 
for  medicine.  These  three  men,  all  Scotchmen  by  birth, 
became  the  medical  luminaries  of  their  day,  and  the 
founders,  respectively,  of  scientific  surgery,  scientific 
midwifery,  and  scientific  medicine;  in  a  word,  the  crea- 
tors of  a  new  epoch  in  the  branches  of  medicine  to 


58  JOIIX  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

which  they  respectively  devoted  their  time,  their  tal- 
ents, and  their  genius.  Each  labored  zealously  to  ad- 
vance our  knowledge  and  to  place  his  specialty  upon  a 
sure,  solid,  scientific  foundation.  They  fertilized  and 
vitalized  everything  they  touched. 

The  great  aim  of  Hunter's  life  was  to  study  and  to 
teach  physiology  as  an  experimental  science,  and  as  the 
only  true  basis  of  medicine  and  surgery.  In  his  inves- 
tigations he  not  only  employed  the  inductive  method, 
after  the  example  of  Hippocrates,  Harvey,  and  Syden- 
ham, but  he  availed  himself  of  every  source  of  infor- 
mation within  the  range  of  his  comprehensive  mind. 
Comparative  anatomy,  natural  history,  insect  and  veg- 
etable life,  morbid  anatomy,  all  were  laid  under  contri- 
bution as  means  of  illustrating  the  principles  of  the 
healing  art  or  of  surgical  pathology  and  practice. 

Hunter,  as  might  be  supposed,  was  endowed  with 
great  reasoning  powers,  and  it  may  boldly  be  asserted 
that  there  was  no  man  in  his  day,  in  any  part  of  the 
world,  who  was  capable  of  taking  a  deeper  or  a  more 
philosophical  view  of  any  subject  that  engrossed  his 
attention  than  he.  He  had  an  unconquerable  love  for 
work,  and  a  passion  for  original  investigation,  which 
outweighed  all  minor  considerations,  the  fascinations 
of  wealth,  the  pleasures  of  society,  and  the  temporary 
plaudits  of  his  fellow-citizens.  To  these  qualities,  so 
essential  to  success  in  any  great  pursuit,  he  added 
remarkable  powers  of  generalizing,  an  Indomitable 
will,  an  ardent  and  unfaltering  enthusiasm,  and  an  in- 
dustry which  knew  no  break  or  chasm,  and  which  no  ob- 
stacle could  check  or  abate.  Of  the  13,682  specimens 
which  adorned  his  collection  at  the  time  of  his  death, 
it  Is  safe  to  say  that  at  least  one-fourth  were  prepared 
with  his  own  hands.     He  dissected  more  than  five  hun- 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  gg 

dred  species  of  animals,  and  of  more  than  three  hun- 
dred of  these  he  left  more  or  less  elaborate  descrip- 
tions. During  the  first  ten  years  of  his  life  he  was 
Incessantly  engaged  in  the  study  of  practical  anatomy, 
spending  nights  and  days  in  the  foul  air  of  the  dissect- 
ing-room ;  and  In  his  maturer  years,  during  which  he 
was  encumbered  with  a  large  private  practice  and  a 
daily  hospital  attendance,  he  never,  unless  compelled 
by  sickness,  relaxed  for  one  hour  in  his  pursuits  as  an 
experimenter  and  an  original  Investigator.  His  mind, 
which  was  eminently  many-sided,  was  constantly  In  a 
state  of  tension  and  concentration,  Incessantly  busy, 
always  thinking,  forever  intent  upon  the  acquisition 
of  new  knowledge,  forever  drawing  in  new  inspira- 
tion at  every  fountain  within  its  reach.  Such  was 
John  Hunter,  a  man  of  vast  designs,  of  noble  deeds, 
and  of  extraordinary  genius,  one  of  those  rare  beings 
whom  an  all-wise  and  beneficent  God,  at  long  Inter- 
vals, sends  Into  the  world  to  astonish  and  enlighten 
mankind,  and  to  direct  the  human  intellect  Into  new 
channels  of  thought  and  action.  The  sparks  which 
were  emitted  by  Hunter's  genius  kindled  a  flame  which 
set  the  medical  and  scientific  world  on  fire. 

It  is  a  remarkable  feature  In  the  life  of  Hunter  that 
he  should  have  possessed  such  marvellous  powers 
of  abstraction  and  analysis,  and  yet  have  been  totally 
unacquainted  with  mathematics  and  geometry,  a  knowl- 
edge of  which  Plato  and  his  school  considered  so 
essential  to  the  full  growth  of  the  reasoning  facul- 
ties. Of  logic,  as  an  elementary  study,  he  was 
equally  ignorant.  It  must  not,  however,  be  forgotten 
that  Hunter's  massive  mind  was  cast  In  the  Scotch 
mould,  and  that  the  Scotch  mind  Is  an  eminently  think- 
ing mind,  capable,  in  Its  higher  developments,  not  only 


^O  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS." 

of  the  loftiest  flights  of  fancy,  but  of  the  most  patient 
research,  of  great  powers  of  endurance,  and  of  the  most 
profound  ratiocination.  Hunter,  notwithstanding  that 
all  his  riper  years  were  passed  among  Englishmen, 
whose  modes  of  thinking  are,  in  many  respects,  so 
different  from  those  of  the  Scotch,  always  retained 
more  or  less  of  his  native  mental  bias,  and  hence,  like 
his  former  countrymen,  Thomas  Reid,  Dugald  Stewart, 
and  other  great  thinkers,  believed  in  the  doctrine  of 
innate  ideas;  while  in  his  dealings  with  ordinary  matter, 
as  it  came  under  his  notice  in  nature's  workshop,  or  in 
his  daily  contemplations,  his  philosophy  partook  more 
of  the  inductive  than  of  the  deductive  method.  "  I 
love  to  think,"  was  one  of  his  common  sayings,  and  he 
might  with  equal  truth  have  added,  "  I  love  to  work." 
If  I  were  to  express  my  convictions  concerning  Hun- 
ter's mental  operations,  or  the  manner  in  which  he 
performed  his  mental  labors,  I  should  say  that  he  had 
been  a  "law  unto  himself."  and  that  he  did  things  very 
much  after  his  own  fashion,  little  influenced  by  the  ex- 
ample of  other  men,  either  ancient  or  modern.  Cer- 
tain it  is  he  never  substituted  hypotheses  for  facts,  or 
made  facts  subservient  to  speculative  views.  In  all  his 
inquiries  into  the  laws  of  animal  and  vegetable  life,  and 
in  all  his  investigations  of  healthy  and  morbid  struc- 
ture, his  great  aim  was  the  establishment  of  principles 
founded  upon  facts  deduced  from  laborious  and  care- 
fully conducted  observations  and  experiments. 

The  lesson  of  the  life  of  such  a  man,  in  every  re- 
spect so  grand  and  colossal,  so  powerful  and  majestic 
in  intellect,  and  so  indissolubly  associated  with  the 
scientific  history  of  his  age  and  country,  is  full  of  in- 
struction, not  only  to  the  members  of  our  own  profes- 
sion, but  to   men  in   every  avenue  and  pursuit  of  life. 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


71 


His  example  of  industry  and  of  steady,  persistent  effort 
in  the  cause  of  human  progress  reflects  the  highest 
credit  upon  his  character,  and  is  worthy  of  the  imita- 
tion of  every  student  ambitious  of  distinction  and  use- 
fulness. No\Yhere,  either  in  ancient  or  modern  times, 
can  there  be  found  a  nobler  pattern  for  the  formation 
of  a  truly  scientific  career.  Commencing  life  as  an 
erratic,  hesitating  youth,  undecided  what  to  do,  or 
whither  to  turn,  without  any  promise  or  definite  aim, 
a  source  of  constant  annoyance  to  his  family  and  of 
disappointment  to  his  friends,  he  became  eventually 
one  of  the  most  illustrious  men  in  all  Europe,  leaving 
behind  him  imperishable  monuments  of  patient  re- 
search, of  vast  genius,  and  of  wonderful  philosophical 
acumen,  destined  to  grow  brighter  and  more  stately  as 
the  ages  roll  on,  and  as  men  become  more  and  more 
appreciative  of  man's  work  and  of  man's  intellectual 
powers. 

Nearly  one  hundred  years  have  elapsed  since  the 
death  of  this  remarkable  man,  this  apostle  of  surgery^ 
this  high  priest  of  nature.  When  the  century  shall  be 
completed  it  will  be  a  fitting  act  on  the  part  of  the 
medical  world  to  place  upon  his  tomb  a  wreath  of  im- 
mortelles, commemorative  of  the  event  and  of  the  high 
sense  of  their  gratitude  for  the  services  which  he  rendered 
to  our  profession  and  to  mankind.  Although  Hunter 
is  dead,  the  spirit  which  animated  him  will  live  in  all 
future  aees  to  encourasre  and  to  stimulate  the  student 
of  surgery,  of  science,  and  of  human  progress.  His 
career  affords  an  illustrious  example  of  a  man  of  great 
intellectual  powers  triumphing  over  early  defective 
training,  and  marching  onward,  step  by  step,  despite 
vast  obstacles,  to  the  highest  pinnacle  of  human  great- 
ness. 


72 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


When  Hunter  entered  upon  the  study  of  his  profes- 
sion, medicine  and  surgery,  although  emancipated  from 
many  of  the  absurdities  and  crude  practices  with  which 
ignorance,  superstition,  and  prejudice  had  surrounded 
them,  had  not  yet  attained  to  the  rank  of  sciences. 
They  were  simply  arts,  consisting  of  isolated  facts, 
without  any  philosophical  basis,  or  any  attempt  what- 
ever at  systematic  classification.  Light,  it  is  true,  was 
beginning  to  dawn  upon  the  professional  mind.  Much 
rubbish  had  been  cleared  away,  but  the  horizon  was 
still  overhung  by  heavy  clouds,  and  it  required  genius 
of  the  highest  order  to  place  these  branches  of  the 
healing  art  upon  a  just  and  enduring  foundation. 
Hunter,  awakened  from  his  early  slumbers,  saw  the 
darkness  which  everywhere  existed,  and  determined  to 
dedicate  his  life  to  its  removal.  Guided  by  the  Ba- 
conian philosophy,  he  perceived  at  a  glance  that  patho- 
logical processes  could  be  correctly  interpreted  only 
by  a  comprehensive  knowledge  of  anatomy  and  physi- 
ology, not  merely  of  man,  but  of  animals,  and  even  of 
plants.  In  a  word,  he  appealed  to  life  in  all  its  forms, 
from  the  most  humble  to  the  most  exalted,  for  illustra- 
tions of  the  various  processes  carried  on  in  the  system 
in  health  and  disease.  No  such  work,  no  such  general- 
ization, upon  so  grand  or  scientific  a  scale,  had  ever 
before  been  attempted.  The  outgrowth  of  these 
studies,  extending  over  a  period  of  forty  years,  was 
the  erection  of  a  temple  whose  corner-stone  neither 
time  nor  circumstances  can  move  or  shake.* 

*  Of  the  low  state  of  surgery  in  England  in  the  time  of  Hunter  some  idea  may 
be  formed  when  it  is  stated  that  a  certain  judge  proclaimed  from  the  bench  his 
conviction  that  "  a  bone-setter  was  just  as  skilful  and  efficient  in  his  business  as 
any  surgeon;"  that  the  celebrated  Mrs.  Mabb  used  to  drive  about  London  in  her 
carriage-and-four  to  set  the  dislocated  limbs  of  the  nobility  and  gentry;  that  the 
brothers  Taylor,  two  noted  charlatans,  were  the  most  distinguished  oculists  in 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


73 


The  most  prominent  surgeons  In  England  In  that 
day  were  Cheselden,  Nourse,  and  Douglas.  They 
were  the  acknowledged  leaders  In  this  branch  of  the 
profession,  and  all  occupied  high  positions  as  operators, 
especially  Cheselden,  whose  fame  as  a  llthotomist  was 
unrivalled ;  Douglas  was  also  well  known  as  an  able 
practical  surgeon,  and  all  three  held  hospital  appoint- 
ments, Douglas's  tracts  on  the  High  Operation  for 
Stone  in  the  Bladder  may  still  be  consulted  with  profit. 
Cheselden,  who  studied  anatomy  under  Cowper  and 
surgery  under  Feme  of  St.  Thomas's  Hospital,  was 
born  in  1688,  at  Somerby,  Leicestershire,  England,  and 
rapidly  rose  to  eminence.  In  1711  he  was  elected  a 
member  of  the  Royal  Society,  and  in  171 3  he  published 
his  Anatomy  of  the  Human  Body,  which  passed  through 
eleven  editions  in  London,  was  reissued  In  this  country, 
and  was  translated  into  different  European  languages. 
He  succeeded  Feme  at  St.  Thomas's  Hospital,  was 
Surgeon  to  Queen  Anne,  and  Consulting  Surgeon  to 
St.  George's  Hospital  and  to  the  Westminster  Infirm- 
ary, and  his  name  stands  first  on  the  list  of  correspond- 
ing members  of  the  Royal  Academy  of  Surgery  of 
Paris.  He  wrote  a  treatise  on  the  High  Operation  for 
Stone  In  the  Bladder,  and.  In  1733,  published  his  cele- 
brated work  on  Osteography,  or  Anatomy  of  the 
Bones.  He  simplified  surgery,  was  fruitful  in  resources 
as  a  practitioner,  and,  although  endowed  with  great  sen- 
sibility and  tenderness  of  feeling,  was  remarkably  cool 
and  self-possessed  as  an   operator.'-'     He    performed 

England;  and  that  even  Hunter  himself  was  occasionally  obliged  to  meet  such 
knaves  in  consultation,  as  in  the  case  of  Thurlow,  Bishop  of  Durham,  and  brother 
of  the  famous  Lord-Chancellor.    Ottley's  Life,  p.  87. 

*  "  If,"  in  speaking  of  lithotomy,  "  I  have  any  reputation  in  this  way,  I  have 
earned  it  dearly,  for  no  one  ever  endured  more  anxiety  and  sickness  before  an 

6 


74 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


lateral  lithotomy,  in  which  he  effected  great  improve- 
ments, two  hundred  and  thirteen  times,  with  only 
twenty  fatal  results.  In  1733,  on  retiring  from  active 
practice,  he  was  appointed  Chief  Surgeon  to  Chelsea 
Hospital,  England's  great  asylum  for  disabled  sailors, 
a  position  which  he  retained  until  his  death,  which 
occurred  in  1752,  in  the  sixty-fourth  year  of  his  age. 

It  was  under  Cheselden  that  Hunter  began  the  study 
of  surgery,  but  whether  he  was  bound  to  him  as  an 
apprentice  or  not  I  am  unable  to  say.  However  this 
may  have  been,  the  connection  was  short-lived,  as 
Cheselden  died  soon  after,  when,  as  previously  stated, 
he  became  a  pupil  at  St.  Bartholomew's  Hospital,  and 
attended  the  lectures  of  Mr.  Pott.  Hunter,  after  he 
had  attained  the  meridian  of  his  professional  life,  had 
no  rivals  in  the  variety,  extent,  or  profundity  of  his 
knowledge.  That  he  had,  however,  his  equals — if,  in 
some  respects,  not  also  his  superiors — in  experience, 
wisdom,  and  practical  skill,  every  one  familiar  with  the 
history  of  surgery  in  the  latter  half  of  the  last  century 
will  freely  admit.  Pott,  Bromfield,  Sharp,  Warner,  and 
Hawkins,  his  immediate  contemporaries,  were  all  men  of 
great  merit  and  influence,  occupying  important  hospital 
positions,  and  enjoying  an  extensive  private  practice. 
As  operators,  several  of  them  were  Hunter's  superiors, 
while,  as  a  classical  writer.  Pott  was  without  a  rival  at 
this  period  in  England.  As  a  practitioner,  too,  he  held 
the  highest  rank,  and  as  a  lecturer  he  had  no  equal  in 
his  day.  Next  to  Hunter  he  left  a  deeper  and  more 
enduring  impression  upon  his  time  than  any  other  of 

operation,  yet  from  the  time  I  began  to  operate  all  imeasiness  ceased  ;  and  if  I 
have  had  better  success  than  others,  I  do  not  impute  it  to  more  knowledge,  but  to 
the  happiness  of  a  mind  that  was  never  ruffled  or  disconcerted,  and  a  hand  that 
never  trembled  during  any  operation." 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  y  g. 

his  contemporaries.  Who  is  not  familiar  with  the  name 
of  Percivall  Pott,  associated  as  it  is  with  great  works 
on  surgery  and  the  description  of  diseases,  as  spinal 
curvature  and  senile  gangrene,  until  then  litde,  if  at 
all,  understood?  His  account  of  injuries  of  the  head, 
of  fractures,  and  of  dislocations  will  forever  hold  a 
prominent  place  in  our  literature.  He  rendered  vast 
service  in  simplifying  surgery  and  divesting  it  of  its 
cruelties.  Born  in  London  in  i  713,  fifteen  years  before 
Hunter,  he  was  left  an  orphan  at  the  age  of  four  years, 
and  at  sixteen,  without  the  aid  of  a  good  classical  edu- 
cation, was  bound  apprentice  to  Mr.  Nourse,  Surgeon  to 
St.  Bartholomew's  Hospital.  In  1 745  he  was  appointed 
Assistant  Surgeon,  and  in  1749  full  Surgeon,  to  this 
institution,  retaining  his  connecdon  with  it  until  a  short 
time  before  his  death,  a  period  of  forty  years.  He  died 
in  1788.  ,  As  a  man  of  polished,  amiable,  and  agreeable 
manners,  he  was  eminently  popular,  and  was  justly  re- 
garded, both  at  home  and  abroad,  as  the  greatest  prac- 
tical surgeon  of  his  day  in  England.  No  man  operated 
more  gracefully,  or  lectured  more  ably  or  more  elo- 
quently. 

Although  Hunter  attended  Pott's  lectures,  and  was 
for  a  long  time  on  the  most  friendly  terms  with  him, 
yet,  as  he  advanced  in  reputation  and  influence,  invidi- 
ous comparisons  were  often  instituted  between  them,, 
both  by  the  profession  and  the  public,  which  finally  had 
the  effect  of  alienatingf  them  from  each  other.  There  was 
also  a  direct  quarrel  between  them,  William  Hunter  hav- 
ing accused  Pott  of  stealing  from  him  and  his  brother 
his  knowledge  of  the  true  nature  of  congenital  hernia, 
without  any  allusion  to  it  in  his  paper  on  the  subject. 
For  such  a  charge   there  was   no  just  ground,  as  the 


yg  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS, 

affection  had  been  previously  described  by  Haller,  and 
hence  it  was  promptly  repelled  by  Pott.* 

William  Bromfield  is  now  remembered  chiefly  in 
connection  with  the  tenaculum,  an  instrument  for  tying 
arteries;  but  he  was  an  accomplished  anatomist  and  an 
intrepid  operator,  whom  no  unexpected  accident  could 
disturb,  and  he  introduced  several  important  improve- 
ments into  practical  surgery.  Devoid  of  modesty  and 
simplicity,  he  was  rough  and  blustering  in  his  manners, 
and  quarrelsome  in  his  disposition.  He  was  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  Lock  Hospital,  Surgeon  to  St.  George's 
Hospital,  and  Surgeon  to  George  II.  He  wrote  on 
various  subjects,  and,  in  1773,  published,  in  two  vol- 
umes, his  Chirurgical  Observations  and  Cases,  a  work 
which  was  translated  into  the  German  language,  and 
republished  in  this  country.  He  was  born  in  171 2, 
and  died  in  1792.   •  , 

Of  Samuel  Sharp's  early  history  nothing  is  known 
beyond  the  fact  that  he  was  a  pupil  of  Cheselden,  and 
afterwards  pursued  his  studies  at  Paris.  He  served  as 
Surgeon  to  Guy's  Hospital,  was  a  member  of  the  Royal 
Society,  and  wrote  two  works,  which  attracted  consid- 
erable attention  in  their  day,  A  Treatise  on  the  Opera- 
tions of  Surgery,  and  A  Critical  Inquiry  into  the  Present 
State  of  Surgery.  He  died  in  1778. 
,  Joseph  Warner,  an  apprentice  of  Samuel  Sharp,  was 
born  in  the  island  of  Antigua,  and  attained  to  high  dis- 
tinction as  an  anatomist  and  surgeon.  He  served  for 
a  short  time  with  the  army  during  the  rebellion  in 
Scotland,  was  a  member  of  the  Royal  Society,  and 
filled  the  office  of  Surgeon  to  Guy's  Hospital  for  forty- 
four  years.     In  1754  he  published  a  volume  of  Cases 

*  Oltley's  Life,  p.  i8. 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  ,7^ 

in  Surgery,  which  was  reissued  in  this  country,  and 
greatly  increased  his  reputation.  His  death  occurred 
at  an  advanced  age  in  1801. 

None  of  these  men,  with  the  exception  of  Pott, 
had  any  of  the  characteristics  of  Hunter,  and  were, 
therefore,  httle  in  sympathy  with  him  or  with  his  labors. 
They  were  good  operators,  and,  doubdess  excellent 
practitioners,  but  they  were  destitute  of  genius,  and 
contributed  little  to  the  advancement  of  surgery,  and 
nothing  whatever  to  the  mental  patrimony  of  the 
race. 

In  medicine,  during  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  England  had  not  a  single  man  who  could  be 
regarded  as  a  man  of  science  in  any  respect  compar- 
able to  Hunter.  There  were  many  excellent  prac- 
titioners, chief  among  whom  was  Jenner,  whose  re- 
searches, shed  lustre  on  the  profession,  but  whose 
labors  were  mainly  directed  to  the  improvement  of 
vaccination  and  to  its  dissemination  among  the  people 
of  his  own  and  other  countries.  William  Cullen,  a 
Scotchman,  and  a  man  of  great  genius,  was  the  first 
writer  in  Great  Britain  who  produced  a  scientific  treatise 
on  medicine.  His  work,  one  of  the  classics  of  our  liter- 
ature, was  for  nearly  half  a  century  the  textbook  of  the 
student  throughout  the  civilized  world,  and  contrib- 
uted more  than  any  other  production  to  place  medicine 
upon  a  scientific  basis.  Indeed,  Cullen  may  justly  be 
regarded  as  the  founder  of  scientific  medicine,  as  John 
Hunter  was  of  scientific  surgery.  Like  Hunter  and 
Sydenham  he  employed  the  inductive  method  in  his 
investigations,  and  appealed  largely  to  physiology  as  a 
means  of  illustrating  the  principles  of  medicine. 

In  midwifery  William  Hunter,  John's  brother,  stood 
pre-eminent.   Smellie,  who  long  taught  midwifery  in  Wvg 


/^g  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

lectures  at  ten  shillinofs  the  course,  and  the  two  Doug- 
lases  were  able  men,  but  Hunter  far  exceeded  them  as 
an  original  observer,  a  shrewd  investigator,  and  a  clear, 
lucid  writer.  His  Anatomy  of  the  Gravid  Uterus,  a 
magnificent  folio  volume,  on  which  he  was  en^aeed  for 
nearly  thirty  years,  alone  was  sufficient  to  insure  his 
immortality.  More  learned  than  John,  and  not  less 
industrious,  he  was  distinguished  for  his  urbanity  and 
the  polish  of  his  manners,  and  occupied  for  many  years 
the  loftiest  position  as  an  obstetric  practitioner  in 
England.  As  an  anatomist  he  also  ranked  very  high; 
but  he  was  inferior  to  his  brother  in  genius  and  in 
his  powers  of  generalization,  and  hence,  great  as  he 
unquestionably  was,  was  overshadowed  by  him.  His 
museum,  the  work  of  many  years  of  arduous  labor,  and 
constructed  at  a  cost  of  upwards  of  ^20,000,  consisting 
of  a  large  number  of  anatomical  and  obstetric  prepa- 
rations, a  library  of  rare  Greek  and  Latin  books,  a  col- 
lection of  fossils  and  other  objects  of  natural  history, 
and  a  cabinet  of  ancient  medals,  was  bequeathed  to  the 
University  of  Glasgow  with  the  sum  of  ;/^8ooo  for  its 
preservation  and  increase.  William  Hunter  was  the 
founder  of  the  Anatomical  Theatre  in  Great  Windmill 
Street,  the  nursery,  for  three-quarters  of  a  century,  of 
great  anatomical  teachers.  He  was  also  the  first  man 
who  ever  delivered  systematic  lectures  on  surgery  in 
London,  thus  anticipating  his  brother  John  by  a  num- 
ber of  years. 

One  reads  even  now,  at  this  distant  period,  not 
without  a  deep  sense  of  regret,  the  accounts  of  the  dis- 
putes that  were  carried  on  for  nearly  twenty  years  by  the 
two  brothers  respecting  the  claims  set  up  by  each  to 
the  discovery  of  the  connection  between  the  placenta 
and  the  uterus  during  pregnancy,  and  the  nutrition  of 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  yg 

the  fetus.  Whatever  the  merits  of  the  controversy 
may  have  been,  the  circumstance  reflects  no  credit 
upon  either.  An  appeal  was  made  by  WilHam  to  the 
Royal  Society  to  settle  the  affair,  but  that  body  declined 
to  interfere,  and  the  question  of  priority  was  never  set- 
tled. The  alienation  thus  produced  continued  up  to 
the  time  of  Dr.  Wilham  Hunter's  last  illness,  when  a 
partial  reconciliation  was  effected,  John,  at  his  own  so- 
licitation, being  permitted  to  visit  his  brother  until  he 
died. 

With  the  exception  of  Dease,  who  wrote  a  good 
treatise  on  injuries  of  the  head,  I  am  not  aware  that 
Ireland  produced  a  first-class  surgeon  in  the  latter  half 
of  the  last  century.  Scotland  was  more  fortunate. 
In  Benjamin  Bell,  of  Edinburgh,  she  had  a  surgeon  of 
marked  ability,  highly  educated,  a  learned  writer,  and 
an  excellent  operator.  It  is  said  that  he  cut  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty  times  for  stone  in  the  bladder;  and, 
as  is  well  known,  his  great  work  on  surgery,  in 
seven  octavo  volumes,  passed  through  seven  editions 
at  home,  was  translated  into  the  French  and  German 
languages,  and  was  reprinted  in  this  country,  where  it 
had  many  readers  and  admirers.  It  held  for  a  long 
time  the  first  place  in  the  medical  libraries  of  Europe, 
and  no  one  can  study  its  ample  pages  without  the  con- 
viction that  it  was  a  great  performance,  creditable  alike 
to  the  author,  to  Scotland,  and  to  our  profession.  Be- 
sides this  work.  Bell  published  two  remarkable  treatises, 
one  on  ulcers  and  the  other  on  the  venereal  disease, 
which  may  still  be  read  with  advantage.  Bell  was  born 
at  Dumfries  in  1749,  and  died  in  1806.  An  excellent 
memoir  of  him  was  published  in  1868  by  his  grandson, 
Mr.  Benjamin  Bell,  one  of  the  surgeons  of  the  Royal 
Infirmary  of  Edinburgh.     I  say  nothing  in  this  conncc- 


gQ  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

tion  of  the  Monros,  second  and  diird,  for  diey  were  far 
more  distinguished  as  anatomists  than  as  surgeons, 
and  added  Httle,  if  anything,  to  the  progress  of  sur- 
gery ;  nor  of  John  Bell,  a  great  operator  and  a  re- 
nowned teacher,  but  a  controversial  writer,  who  seems 
to  have  cared  little,  if  anything,  about  John  Hunter  or 
his  doctrines. 

On  the  continent  of  Europe,  Hunter's  more  promi- 
nent contemporaries  were  Chopart  and  Desault  in 
France,  Nannoni  in  Italy,  Richter  in  Germany,  and 
Balthaser  in  Holland.  Of  their  works  Hunter  probably 
never  heard,  certainly  never  read  a  page,  with  the  ex- 
ception, possibly,  of  Desault's. 

CHAPTER  II. 

hunter's  pupils. 

Among  Hunter's  pupils,  the  most  distinguished,  un- 
quesdonably,  were  Edward  Jenner,  John  Abernethy, 
Henry  Cline,  Philip  Syng  Physick,  Astley  Paston 
Cooper,  Everard  Home,  John  Thomson,  James  Macart- 
ney, Thomas  Chevalier,  James  Wilson,  and  Edward 
Coleman.  These  men  were  proud  of  their  master ; 
they  regarded  him  with  profound  respect  and  rever- 
ence, and  accepted  his  teachings  as  a  kind  of  reveladon 
from  heaven.  Others  there  were  who  sneered  at  his 
doctrines,  and  who  were  unable  to  comprehend  them, 
either  because  they  were  deficient  in  capacity  or  too 
indolent  and  impadent  to  study  them.  The  pupils 
whose  names  are  here  recorded  constitute  a  galaxy  of 
illustrious  men,  upon  whose  shoulders  the  mantle  of 
the  master  worthily  rested,  and  who,  in  their  turn, 
transmitted  it  untarnished  to  their  successors.     They 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  gj 

played  so  conspicuous  a  part  in  disseminating  Hunter's 
doctrines,  and  in  correcting  his  errors,  that  a  brief 
sketch  of  each  of  them  cannot  fail  to  be  of  interest  m 
connection  with  the  history  of  his  own  life.  The  glory 
of  the  master  is  often  eclipsed  by  the  reputation  of  the 
pupil ;  but  in  this  instance,  illustrious  as  many  of  the 
disciples  became,  the  glory  of  the  master  is  rendered 
only  the  more  brilliant  and  enduring. 

Of  all  the  private  pupils  of  Hunter,  Edward  Jenner 
was  at  once  the  most  beloved  and  the  most  valued.  A 
life-long  intimacy,  founded  on  mutual  esteem  and  kind 
offices,  existed  between  them.  Jenner  began  the  study 
of  medicine  in  London  in  1770,  being  at  the  time  in  his 
twenty-first  year,  while  Hunter,  already  a  hospital  sur- 
geon, and  a  man  of  considerable  reputation,  was  in  his 
forty-second  year.  The  menagerie  which  Hunter  had 
opened  at  Brompton  for  the  study  of  the  habits  and 
structure  of  animals  had  been  for  some  time  in  suc- 
cessful operation,  and  Hunter,  impressed  with  the  value 
of  Jenner's  services,  was  solicitous  that  he  should  re- 
main in  the  metropolis  as  his  assistant,  hoping  thereby 
to  profit  by  his  labors  in  the  dissecting-room,  in  his 
researches  into  natural  history  and  in  the  extension  of 
his  museum  ;  objects  which  he  had  so  greatly  at  heart 
and  which  had  already  been  absorbing  so  much  of  his 
time  and  income.  He  even  urged  Jenner,  within  five 
years  after  he  became  his  pupil,  to  join  him  in  estab- 
lishing a  school  of  natural  history  on  a  scale  till  that 
time  unknown  in  Great  Britain.  To  these  flattering 
offers,  however,  Jenner  lent  a  deaf  ear,  preferring  the 
pure  air  of  the  country  to  the  dingy  and  uncongenial 
atmosphere  of  London.  He  accordingly,  on  the  expi- 
ration of  his  pupilage,  returned  to  Berkeley,  in  Glou- 
cestershire, the  place  of  his   nativity,  where  he  soon 


32  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPH.S. 

after  effected  his  great  discovery,  which  has  been  in- 
strumental in  saving  so  many  human  Hves  and  of  con- 
fe'rrlng  so  much  honor  upon  the  medical  profession. 
Jenner  cherished  the  warmest  love  for  his  preceptor, 
of  whom  he  generally  spoke  as  the  "dear  man."  For 
his  intellectual  powers  he  had  the  most  profound  re- 
spect, and  his  conduct  affords  a  beautiful  example  of 
the  devotion  with  which,  during  a  period  of  nearly  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  he  aided  him  by  experiment,  ob- 
servation, and  the  supply  of  specimens,  in  studying  the 
habits  of  various  animals,  birds,  and  reptiles.  Indeed,  the 
patience  of  Jenner,  despite  his  love  and  veneration  for 
the  "  dear  man,"  must  often  have  been  put  to  the  test 
by  the  frequent  demands  made  upon  his  time,  at  periods 
when  his  own  attention  was  absorbed  in  perfecting  his 
discovery,  and  in  disseminating  its  blessings  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth.  The  numerous  letters  which 
passed  between  them  would,  if  they  had  been  preserved, 
have  filled  several  large  volumes.  Fortunately  some  of 
the  more  interesting  and  valuable  have  been  published  in 
Barron's  Life  of  Jenner  and  in  Ottley's  Life  of  Hunter. 
Hunter's  letters,  while  they  are  generally  distinguished 
by  great  earnestness  and  vigor  of  intellect,  are  almost 
invariably  defaced  by  wretched  grammar  and  inele- 
gance of  style.  Not  a  few  of  them  are  as  badly  com- 
posed as  Byron's  first  epistle,  written  at  the  age  of 
seven  years.     Jenner  died  in  June,  1823. 

John  Abernethy  was  of  Scotch-Irish  descent,  and  was 
born  in  London  in  1764.  His  early  education  was 
limited;  he  commenced  his  professional  novitiate  at  the 
age  of  sixteen  under  Mr.,  afterwards  Sir,  Charles  Blick, 
a  surgeon  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Hospital ;  attended 
Hunter's  lectures  on  anatomy  and  surgery,  and  on 
the  death  of  his  master  succeeded  to  his  office.     His 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  g^ 

labors  in  authorship  began  in  1793.  His  earHer  works 
consisted  of  a  series  of  physiological  and  surgical  papers, 
marked  by  great  originality  and  conceived  in  the  true 
spirit  of  philosophy.  These  publications  were  followed 
more  or  less  rapidly  by  his  celebrated  Treatise  on  Tu- 
mors, Constitutional  Origin  and  Treatment  of  Local 
Diseases,  Diseases  Resembling  Syphilis,  and  a  tract  on 
Injuries  of  the  Head.  Abernethy  was  a  great  admirer 
of  Hunter,  and  one  of  his  most  able,  devoted,  and  illus- 
trious disciples.  In  his  work  on  the  Constitutional 
Origin  of  Local  Diseases,  he  was  the  first  to  point  out 
the  true  nature  of  many  affections  which,  up  to  that 
time,  had  been  little,  if,  indeed,  at  all  understood  by 
practitioners  ;  he  laid  special  stress  upon  the  condition 
of  the  stomach  as  a  prolific  cause  of  disease,  and  went 
so  far  as  to  declare  his  convictions  that  the  vast  majority 
of  cases  of  sickness  depended  upon  gastric  or  gastro- 
enteric disorders,  for  the  rectification  of  which  blue  pill 
and  a  properly  regulated  diet,  aided  by  exercise,  were 
the  sovereign  remedies.  Although  Abernethy  made  a 
hobby  of  this  practice,  there  is  no  question  that  it  was 
a  step  in  a  most  important  direcdon,  the  value  of  which 
has  been  generally  acknowledged,  on  account  of  the 
principles  involved  in  its  physiological  and  pathological 
bearinofs. 

As  an  operator,  Abernethy  was  equal  to  any  emer- 
gency He  was  the  first  to  extend  the  principles  of  the 
Hunterian  operation  for  aneurism  to  the  common  carotid 
and  external  iliac  arteries  ;  and  he  held  in  common  with 
Hunter  the  erroneous  opinion  that  operations  in  general 
are  a  reflection  on  the  healing  art.  He  also  adopted 
his  notions,  as  previously  stated,  that  life'  is  super- 
added to  organization,  and  not  in  any  way  antece- 
dent to  it.      He  went  much  further  tlian   Hunter  in 


g  .  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

regard  to  the  subtilty  of  this  agent  and  of  its  supposed 
influence  on  matter.  His  style  as  a  writer  was  clear 
and  vigorous,  and  as  a  lecturer  he  never  failed  to  rivet 
the  attention  of  his  pupils,  who  regarded  him  as  a  kind 
of  Sir  Oracle,  Dogmatism  was  a  prominent  feature  of 
his  teaching.  Abernethy  died  in  1831.  Many  anec- 
dotes, some  of  them  of  a  very  humorous  character,  are 
related  of  him,  and  go  to  show  that,  while  he  was  one 
of  the  most  eccentric  of  men,  he  was  also  one  of  the 
best  and  most  kind-hearted. 

Henry  Cline,  one  of  Hunter's  most  valued  and  intel- 
ligent pupils,  was  born  in  i  751,  and  made  himself  early 
in  life  thoroughly  acquainted  with  anatomy,  on  which 
he  lectured  with  extraordinary  eclat.  He  was  for  many 
years  Surgeon  to  St,  Thomas's  Hospital,  was  a  prac- 
titioner of  great  skill  and  judgment,  and  was  much 
esteemed  by  his  professional  brethren.  He  died  in 
1827,  universally  regretted. 

In  this  country  the  principal  expounder  of  Hunter's 
doctrines  was  Philip  Syng  Physick,  beyond  question 
one  of  his  most  distinguished  pupils.  Who  Physick 
was,  what  he  accomplished  for  medicine  and  surgery, 
how  he  was  venerated,  not  only  by  his  professional 
brethren  but  by  the  public,  and  how  his  memory  is 
enshrined  in  the  hearts  of  American  students,  is  almost 
too  well  known  to  require  any  comment.  It  is  only 
yesterday,  as  it  were,  that  he  passed  from  among  us, 
leaving  behind  him  an  Imperishable  name, 

Physick's  father  was  an  Englishman,  and  the  mother 
the  daughter  of  a  silversmith,  a  vocation  which  he 
was  often  heard  to  say  he  deeply  regretted  he  had  not 
himself  adopted.  He  was  born  In  this  city  In  1768, 
and  at  the  aire  of  elo-hteen  was  oraduated  Bachelor  of 
Arts  In  the  literary  department  of  the  University  of 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  gc 

Pennsylvania.  He  attended  the  lectures  in  what  was 
then  known  as  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Medicine ; 
and,  in  1780,  without  a  degree  from  that  school,  went, 
in  company  with  his  father,  to  London,  where  he  was 
at  once  placed  under  the  instruction  of  Hunter. 
When  asked  by  the  father  u^hat  books  his  son  would 
be  expected  to  read,  Hunter  with  characteristic  force 
and  earnestness  said :  "  Sir,  follow  me  ;  I  will  show  you 
the  books  your  son  has  to  study,"  and  leading  the  way 
to  the  dissecting-room,  he  pointed  to  several  bodies, 
adding,  "These  are  the  books  which  your  son  will 
learn  under  my  direction  ;  the  others  are  fit  for  very 
little:"  noble  words,  too  little  heeded  by  teachers  of 
medicine  !  Physick  entered  at  once  upon  his  duties, 
and  such  was  the  rapid  progress  which  he  made  and 
the  neatness  of  his  work,  that  he  received  the  hip-hest 
commendation  from  his  master,  who  had  such  confi- 
dence in  his  judgment  and  honesty  that  he  intrusted 
him  with  the  performance  of  a  number  of  his  experi- 
ments on  the  blood  and  on  inflammation.  After  a 
sojourn  under  Hunter's  roof  of  nearly  a  year  and  a 
half,  Physick,  in  1790,  was  elected  house-surgeon  to 
St.  George's  Hospital,  an  office  which  he  held  for 
twelve  months,  durinof  which  he  discharo-ed  its  func- 
tions  in  so  able  and  faithful  a  manner  as  to  elicit,  at 
the  close  of  his  term  of  service,  a  vote  of  thanks  from 
the  managers.  On  leaving  the  hospital.  Hunter,  fore- 
seeinof  his  future  "greatness,  and  the  advanta^res  which 
such  a  man  might  be  to  him  in  the  prosecution  of  his  re- 
searches, made  him  an  offer  of  a  share  in  his  business ; 
but,  fortunately  for  his  country,  this  he  declined,  and 
soon  after,  namely,  in  1792,  in  the  twenty-fifth  year  of 
his  age,  he  returned  to  Philadelphia,  where,  after  a  few 
years  of  hardships,  incident  to  most  young  men  of  merit 


o^  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

in  all  professions,  he  entered  upon  that  brilliant  career 
which  eventually  secured  for  him  the  enviable  title  of 
the  father  of  American  surgery.  In  1794,  two  years 
after  his  return  from  Europe,  he  was  elected  Surgeon 
to  the  Philadelphia  Hospital,  and  the  following  year  to 
the  Almshouse  Infirmary.  In  1800,  at  the  age  of 
thirty-two,  he  gave  a  private  course  of  lectures  on  sur- 
gery, and,  in  1805,  he  was  honored  with  the  chair  of 
Surgery  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  His  lec- 
tures were  always  prepared  with  great  care,  and,  with- 
out beine  ornate  or  brilliant,  were  delivered  with 
earnestness  from  his  manuscript.  His  habit  for  many 
years  was  to  rise  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and 
to  study  the  subjects  of  his  discourse  thoroughly  before 
he  went  before  his  class.  Such  industry  and  conscien- 
tiousness had  their  reward ;  for  whatever  he  uttered 
was  received  with  implicit  confidence  by  his  admiring 
pupils. 

Physick  occupied  the  chair  of  surgery  until  1818, 
when,  on  the  death  of  his  nephew,  Dr.  Dorsey,  the 
following  year,  he  was  transferred  to  the  chair  of 
anatomy ;  "  from  the  place,"  to  use  the  language  of 
one  of  his  biographers.  Dr.  John  Bell,  "  where  he  was 
emphatically  at  home  to  one  in  which  he  was  compara- 
tively a  stranger."  "The  act,"  to  quote  the  language 
of  another  biographer,  "  was  a  descent  from  his  high 
estate,  which  dimmed  and  deadened  his  academic 
lustre."  There  is  great  force  in  these  remarks.  The 
change  was  beyond  question  a  serious  injury  to  Phy- 
sick, if  not  also  to  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  In 
the  chair  of  surgery  he  y^2.%  facile  princeps,  while  in  that 
of  anatomy  he  simply  did  what  might  have  been  done 
quite  as  well,  if  not  better,  by  a  dozen  of  his  Philadel- 
phia contemporaries.     As  a  teacher  of  the  principles 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPH^S. 


87 


and  practice  of  surgery  Physick  was,  so  long  as  he  held 
his  surgical  chair,  without  a  rival  in  this  country. 
Although  he  was  not,  as  already  stated,  a  brilliant 
talker,  his  lectures,  from  the  soundness  of  their  pre- 
cepts and  the  variet}'  and  extent  of  their  information, 
attracted  great  attention,  and  I  have  heard  some  of 
his  older  pupils,  long  since  dead,  declare  that  they 
possessed  a  charm  that  was  altogether  irresistible. 
That  they  partook  largely  of  the  doctrines  which  he 
had  imbibed  from  Hunter  does  not  admit  of  doubt; 
for  no  teacher  in  those  days  could  have  derived  any 
materal  aid  from  any  other  source  for  the  illustration 
of  the  great  principles  of  surgery.  No  man  that  ever 
adorned  the  American  medical  profession  enjoyed  so 
universal  a  reputation  as  Physick.  Nor  was  he  known 
simply  as  a  surgeon  ;  he  ranked  high,  very  high,  also 
as  a  physician.  His  pupils,  who  idolized  him,  and  who 
were  scattered  through  every  nook  and  corner  of  this 
continent,  disseminated  his  doctrines  far  and  wide,  and 
not  a  few  of  them  became  the  founders  of  medical 
schools  and  the  great  expounders  of  the  art  and 
science  of  surgery.  When  he  entered  upon  his  career 
the  field  of  surgery  in  this  country  was  almost  untrod- 
den. Dr.  Jones,  of  New  York,  was,  in  fact,  almost  the 
only  surgeon  of  any  prominence,  and  he  did  not  stand 
long  in  his  way.  Afterwards  appeared  simultaneously, 
or  in  more  or  less  rapid  succession,  Wright  Post, 
Hewson,  Parrish,  Barton,  Gibson,  Davidge,  Wagner, 
Randolph,  Horner,  McClellan,  Mott,  Warren,  and 
Dudley,  not  to  mention  others,  men  who  had  either 
been  his  pupils  or  who  had,  in  some  way,  profited  by 
his  teaching.  Physick  has  left  no  substantial  memorial 
as  a  surgeon.  He  had  an  aversion  to  authorship,  and, 
as  a  consequence,  his  vast  experience  was  buried  with 


gg  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

his  ashes,  save  only  a  few  fragments  garnered  by  his 
pupils.     He  died  in  1837. 

William  Shippen,  one  of  die  founders  of  die  Univer- 
sity of  Pennsylvania,  was  a  pupil  of  John  Hunter,  and 
for  a  short  time  resided  in  his  family.  He  also  studied 
anatomy  under  William  Hunter,  and  on  his  return  to 
Philadelphia  delivered  the  first  course  of  lectures  on 
anatomy  ever  given  in  this  city.  He  no  doubt  had 
formed  a  high  estimate  of  the  value  of  Hunter's  labors, 
but  as  he  never  illustrated  surgery  it  would  be  out 
of  place  here  to  give  a  more  extended  notice  of  him. 

One  of  the  most  illustrious  of  Hunter's  pupils,  and 
one  who  shed  more  substantial  light  upon  the  surgical 
profession  than  any  other  man  of  his  age  in  England, 
was  Sir  Astley  Paston  Cooper,  a  man  of  magnificent 
mien  and  stature,  the  son  of  a  Norfolk  clergyman,  born 
in  1768,  twenty-five  years  before  Plunter's  death. 
Commencing  his  career  under  an  apothecary  at  Yar- 
mouth, he  was  subsequently  apprenticed  to  his  uncle, 
William  Cooper,  Surgeon  to  Guy's  Hospital,  by  whom 
he  was  shortly  afterwards  transferred  to  Mr.  Henry 
Cline,  of  St.  Thomas's.  His  medical  education  was 
completed  in  Paris,  under  Desault  and  Chopart,  whose 
names  are  so  well  known  to  professional  men  all  over 
the  world  as  great  surgeons.  In  1821  he  was  made 
a  baronet  by  George  IV,  and  a  few  years  later 
Sergeant-Surgeon  to  his  Majesty.  He  held  succes- 
sively various  offices  of  trust  and  honor,  lectured 
for  many  years  on  anatomy  and  surgery,  and  in  1837 
received  the  degree  of  D.C.L.  from  the  University  of 
Oxford.  As  an  operator  he  possessed  uncommon  skill, 
and  no  surgeon  in  any  part  of  the  world  ever  realized 
so  vast  an  income  from  his  practice,  which  in  one  par- 
ticular year  amounted,  it  is  said,  to  ^21,000.     His  pa- 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  gg 

tients  were  mainly  from  among  the  nobility  and  the 
higher  classes  of  society,  and  consequently  could  afford 
to  pay  large  fees.  He  was  an  indefatigable  student  to 
the  last  days  of  his  life,  possessed  a  strong,  inquisitive, 
and  original  mind,  and  was  the  author  of  numerous 
works  evincing  great  research,  patient  industry,  and 
extraordinary  powers  of  observation.  Among  these 
works  the  treatises  on  hernia,  the  diseases  of  the  breast 
and  testis,  and  on  dislocations  and  fractures  are  wor- 
thy of  special  commendation.  A  complete  edition  of 
his  surgical  works,  in  three  volumes  octavo,  was  pub- 
lished in  1S36  by  Alexander  Lee,  the  elegant  editor 
and  translator  of  Celsus.  It  is  profusely  illustrated 
by  colored  drawings,  interspersed  through  the  text. 
Sir  Asdey  died  in  1841.  A  magnificent  statue  has  been 
erected  to  his  memory  in  St.  Paul's  Church,  London. 

As  to  Home  who,  Judas  Iscariot-like,  betrayed  his 
master,  little  need  be  added  to  what  is  said  of  him  in 
a  former  part  of  this  memoir.  Born  in  1756,  at  Green- 
law Castle,  in  the  County  of  Berwick,  Scodand,  he 
studied  with  Hunter,  assisted  him  in  his  work,  be- 
came his  brother-in-law,  and  ultimately  the  custodian 
of  his  MSS.  He  practiced  surgery  with  great  credit 
for  forty  years,  was,  for  a  time,  a  surgeon  in  th'e  army, 
acted  as  President  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons, 
and  was  surgeon  to  George  IV  and  William  IV,  by  the 
former  of  whom  he  was  created  a  baronet  in  18]  3. 
He  was  the  author  of  numerous  contributions  on  medi- 
cal and  sciendfic  subjects,  of  Lectures  on  Comparadve 
Anatomy,  of  a  treadse  on  Strictures  of  the  Urethra 
and  CEsophagus,  of  Observations  on  Cancer,  and  of  a 
monograph  on  Diseases  of  the  Prostate  Gland.  Every 
one  of  these  works  displays  marked  ability,  and  formed 
in  its  day  a  useful  addition  to  the  literature  of  the  pro- 

7 


90 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


fession.     Alas,  for  poor  Home  !     It  would  have  been 
well  if  he  had  not  been  born  ! 

But  of  all  the  expositors  of  Hunter's  pathological 
doctrines,  by  far  the  most  able,  luminous,  and  efficient 
was  Dr.  John  Thomson,  for  a  number  of  years  Profes- 
sor of  Military  Surgery  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh, 
born  March  1 5th,  1765,  at  Paisley,  Scotland,  After  having 
completed  his  studies  at  Edinburgh,  he  entered  Hun- 
ter's school  in  Leicester  Square,  where  he  remained  until 
it  passed  into  the  hands  of  Home.  His  great  work  on 
Inflammation  was  published  in  181 3,  just  twenty  years 
after  the  death  of  the  illustrious  English  philosopher, 
and  at  once  obtained  a  wide  circulation,  not  only  in 
Great  Britain,  but  on  the  continent  of  Europe  and  in 
America.  It  was  in  no  long  time  translated  into  the 
German,  Italian,  and  French  languages,  and  two  editions 
of  it  were  reprinted  in  Philadelphia,  the  last  in  1831. 
Large  portions  of  it  were  also  transferred  to  Cooper's 
famous  Surgical  Dictionary.  Thomson  was  beyond 
question  the  most  able  and  faithful  interpreter  of  Hun- 
ter's views  of  the  principles  of  surgery,  and  the  first  to 
point  out,  in  clear  and  distinct  terms,  the  modifications 
produced  by  inflammation  in  the  different  textures  of 
the  body.  His  work  was,  in  fact,  a  treatise  on  medi- 
cal pathology,  and  could,  therefore,  be  read  with  equal 
advantage  and  profit  by  the  physician  and  the  surgeon. 
It  is  not  doing  injustice  to  the  author  to  say  that  it  is 
a  sort  of  running  commentary  on  Hunter's  Treatise  on 
Inflammation,  enriched  by  the  results  of  his  own  vast 
experience  acquired  in  the  field,  in  civil  life,  and  in  hos- 
pital practice.  This  masterly  production,  one  of  the 
classics  of  medical  literature,  long  held  its  place  in  the. 
esteem  of  the  profession,  and  served  many  a  teacher 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  gj 

as  a  text  for  his  lectures,  and  many  an  author  as  a  mine 
in  which  he  ducr  his  material. 

Thomson's  early  life  was  not  without  its  strues'les. 
He  was  the  son  of  a  silk  weaver,  and  when  his  father 
failed  in  business  he  was  bound  to  him  as  an  appren- 
tice, and  worked  at  his  trade  for  two  years  after  his 
time  had  expired.  He  then  studied  medicine,  and  rap- 
idly rose  to  distinction  as  an  industrious  student  and 
a  man  of  brilliant  intellect.  His  early  professional 
career  was  marked  by  his  fondness  for  chemical  re- 
searches, and  there  is  no  doubt  that  if  he  had  remained 
faithful  to  his  original  predilections  he  would  have  ac- 
quired a  high  reputation  as  a  chemist;  but  he  gradu- 
ally lapsed  into  surgery,  of  which  he  was  destined  to 
become  so  brilliant  an  ornament.  He  was  a  man  of  a 
very  active  and  inquisitive  mind,  a  copious  writer,  an 
incessant  worker,  and  a  most  popular  and  accomplished 
teacher.  He  served  with  distinction  as  a  surofeon  in 
the  Peninsular  War,  and  occupied  with  great  eclat  for 
thirteen  years  the  chair  of  Military  Surgery  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Edinburgh,  at  the  expiration  of  which  he  was 
transferred  to  the  chair  of  General  Pathology,  created 
at  his  special  instance.  As  an  operator  he  was  not 
particularly  distinguished.  Among  his  later  produc- 
tions was  his  Life  of  Dr.  William  Cullen,  of  whom,  as 
well  as  of  Hunter,  he  was  a  great  admirer.  He  expired 
on  the  nth  of  October,  1846,  in  the82d  yearof  his  age. 

The  name  of  James  Macartney,  another  cele- 
brated pupil  of  Hunter,  is  well  known  in  the  United 
States,  although  nearly  forty  years  have  elapsed  since 
his  death.  He  was  widely  distinguished  as  an  eloquent 
teacher  in  connection  with  the  chalrof  Anatomy  in  Trinity 
College,  Dublin,  and  rendered  himself  immortal  I))-  his 
work  on  Inflammation,  in  which  he  distincdy  enunciated, 


92 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


for  the  first  time,  his  pecuHar  views  respecting  the  heal- 
ing of  wounds  by  what  is  now  known  as  the  modelHng 
process,  or  union  without  inflammation  and  an  effusion 
of  plasma;  a  doctrine  foreshadowed  by  Hunter  and 
now  generally  accepted  in  the  schools.  Armagh  had 
the  honor  of  his  birth.  His  monograph  on  Inflammation 
created  a  deep  sensation  in  the  medical  world  at  the 
time  of  its  publication,  and  was  the  occasion  of  much 
spirited  criticism.  Macartney  was  a  very  accomplished 
anatomist,  a  laborious  worker,  and  the  founder  of  a 
valuable  museum,  which  is  now  in  the  University  of 
Cambridge.  He  died,  if  I  mistake  not,  in  1843.  He 
was  one  of  Hunter's  most  devoted  followers  and  one 
of  his  warmest  admirers. 

There  were  three  other  pupils  of  Hunter  who,  from 
the  high  position  they  attained,  reflect  honor  upon  his 
memory,  and  are  deserving  of  brief  notice  in  a  work 
desiofned  to  commemorate  the  life  and  character  of  the 
founder  of  scientific  surgery.  I  allude  to  Thomas  Chev- 
alier, James  Wilson,  and  Edward  Coleman,  Chevalier 
was  Surgeon  to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  Professor  of  An- 
atomy and  Surgery  to  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons, 
and  the  author  of  a  Treatise  on  Gunshot  Wounds, 
of  a  Course  of  Lectures  on  the  Operations  of  Surgery, 
and  of  numerous  papers  in  the  Medico-Chirurgical 
Transactions.  In  his  Hunterian  oration  for  1821  he 
gave  a  most  learned  and  lucid  exposition  of  the  doc- 
trines of  his  illustrious  master.    He  died  in  1824. 

James  Wilson  was  a  great  anatomist  and  an  able 
lecturer;  he  succeeded  Hunter  in  the  celebrated  ana- 
tomical school  in  Great  Windmill  Street.  There  he 
taught  many  of  the  young  men  who  became  afterwards, 
in  their  turn,  distinguished  anatomists  and  surgeons,  as 
well  as  authors.    He  was  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society, 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS, 


93 


and  was  the  first  to  describe  the  muscles  which  surround 
the  membranous  portion  of  the  urethra,  and  which  are 
now  universally  known  by  his  name. 

Edward  Coleman,  a  special  favorite  of  Hunter,  was 
born  in  1765  in  Kent  County,  England.  His  father 
was  a  farmer;  and  at  an  early  age  he  was  apprenticed 
to  a  sureeon  at  Gravesend,  with  whom  he  remained 
seven  years.  In  1 789  he  went  to  London,  and  became 
a  pupil  of  Mr.  Cline,  the  eminent  surgeon,  in  whose 
house  he  resided  until  1792.  While  in  this  situation 
he  completed  an  elaborate  series  of  experiments,  com- 
menced at  Gravesend,  on  dogs  and  cats,  illustrative  of 
the  nature  and  treatment  of  asphyxia,  the  results  of 
which  were  embodied  in  an  essay,  to  which  was  awarded 
a  prize  medal.  On  the  death  of  St.  Bel,  an  eminent 
veterinarian,  he  was,  on  the  recommendation  of  Hunter 
and  Cline,  appointed  a  professor  in  the  London  Veteri- 
nary College.  Here  he  exerted  himself  with  great 
ability,  and  soon  placed  the  institution  upon  a  success- 
ful basis.  In  1 798-1 802  he  published,  in  two  volumes, 
his  celebrated  treatise  on  the  Anatomy  and  Diseases  of 
the  Foot  of  the  Horse,  which,  together  with  some  of  his 
other  works,  was  translated  into  the  German  language, 
and  gready  enhanced  his  reputation  as  a  scientific 
veterinarian.  He  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  shoeing 
of  horses,  in  the  ventilation  of  stables,  and  in  the  im- 
provement of  the  breed  of  horses,  dogs,  and  catde 
throughout  England.  Late  in  life  he  received  the 
appointment  of  Veterinary  Surgeon-General,  and  was 
elected  a  member  of  many  learned  and  scientific  socie- 
ties at  home  and  abroad.  During  his  apprenticeship 
with  Mr.  Cline  he  attended  the  lectures  of  Hunter, 
the  principles  of  which  he  afterwards  taught  in  his 
own  lectures,  and  applied  in  his  practice  to  the  treat- 


g  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

ment  of  the  diseases  and  Injuries  of  die  lower  animals. 
Coleman  was  much  respected  by  the  public  as  well 
as  by  the  medical  profession,  and  was  on  terms  of 
Intimacy  with  Jenner,  Bablngton,  Abernethy,  Charles 
Bell,  Brodle,  and  Sir  Asdey  Cooper,  between  the  latter 
of  whom  and  himself  the  warmest  friendship  existed, 
which  terminated  only  with  their  lives.  He  died  In 
1839.  Frequent  reference  is  made  to  this  great  veteri- 
nary surgeon  in  the  writings  of  Sir  Astley  Cooper,  and 
in  the  admirable  works  of  Youatt  and  other  veterinary 
surgeons.  He  may  justly  be  regarded  as  the  founder  of 
scientific  veterinary  surgery  In  Great  Britain. 

It  is  a  source  of  reo^ret  to  me  to  be  unable  for  the 
want  of  material  to  add  to  these  biographical  sketches 
a  brief  account  of  the  life  of  Nathaniel  Rumsey,  to 
whom  the  world  is  indebted  for  the  only  correct  report 
of  Hunter's  Lectures  on  the  Principles  of  Surgery, 
These  lectures  were  delivered  in  1786  and  1787  ;  and, 
although  there  are  other  copies  of  them  extant,  they 
are  all  very  imperfect  In  comparison  with  that  of  Rum- 
sey, used  In  Palmer's  edition  of  Hunter's  complete 
works.  In  referring  to  this  subject,  Palmer  remarks 
that  one  might  almost  suppose,  from  the  accuracy  and 
fulness  of  the  report,  that  the  writer  had  had  access  to 
Hunter's  MSS. ;  a  circumstance  which  derives  additional 
support  from  the  fact  that  the  style  Is  characteristically 
Hunterlan,  and  that  the  text  in  various  places  is  Inter- 
spersed with  cases  and  illustrations  In  proof  of  the  view 
expressed  in  it.  Rumsey  was  a  resident  of  Cheston, 
England,  and  probably  never  acquired  any  reputation 
beyond  that  of  a  local  practitioner.  In  view  of  the 
importance  of  his  services,  he  well  fulfilled  his  mission, 
and  his  name  deserves  to  be  held  in  lasting  remem- 
brance. 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  q- 

There  are  five  men  whose  names  are  so  intimately 
associated  with  the  progress  of  British  surgery,  who 
were  such  great  admirers  of  Hunter's  teachings,  and 
who  have  left  behind  them  such  a  noble  record,  that  it 
would  be  unjust,  it  seems  to  me,  to  pass  them  by  in 
silence.  I  allude  more  especially  to  Samuel  Cooper, 
Benjamin  Travers,  Benjamin  Collins  Brodie,  William 
Lawrence,  and  Joseph  Henry  Green.  These  men,  al- 
though none  of  them  were  his  pupils,  imbibed  much  of 
their  early  professional  knowledge  from  a  profound 
and  thoughtful  study  of  his  writings  ;  they  were  ani- 
mated by  his  example,  and  carried  onward  the  work 
which  his  own  immediate  pupils  had  left  unfinished. 

Who  is  not  familiar  with  the  name  and  fame  of  Sam- 
uel Cooper,  the  author  of  the  First  Lines  of  Surgery, 
and  of  the  celebrated  Surgical  Dictionary  ?  As  for 
myself,  many  of  my  most  pleasant  professional  recol- 
lections are  associated  with  these  works,  and  there  is 
not  in  this  country  a  surgeon  or  physician  who  has  at- 
tained the  age  of  fifty  who  is  not  familiar  with  their 
contents,  or  who  does  not  consult  them  ev^en  now,  after 
so  manyother  treatises  have  appeared  upon  thesubject, 
with  the  certainty  of  being  deeply  interested  as  well  as 
greatly  instructed.  Samuel  Cooper  was  a  native  of 
Salisbury,  England,  where  he  was  born  in  i  780.  With 
the  sole  exception  of  John  Thomson,  he  did  more 
to  give  currency  to  Hunter's  doctrines  at  home  and 
abroad  than  any  other  man  in  Great  Britain.  His 
First  Lines  appeared  in  1807,  when  he  was  only  twenty- 
seven  years  of  age,  and  was  followed  in  1809  by  the 
Surgical  Dictionary,  each  of  which  passed  through 
seven  editions  during  his  lifetime.  The  former  of  these 
works  was  long  used,  both  in  Great  Britain  and  in  this 
country,  as  a  class-book  for  the  student,  while  the  latter,. 


g^  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

which  raised  its  author  to  the  highest  pinnacle  of  fame 
as  a  learned  and  accomplished  writer,  found  a  place  in 
the  library  of  every  intelligent  practitioner,  and  was 
translated  into  the  French,  German,  Italian,  and  Rus- 
sian languages.  In  this  country  it  passed  through  a 
number  of  editions,  the  first  under  the  supervision  of 
Dr.  John  Syng  Dorsey,  of  this  city,  in  1810,  and  the 
last  under  that  of  Dr.  D.  Meredith  Reese,  of  New  York, 
in  1842.  The  Dictionary  is  a  work  of  vast  erudition 
and  of  stupendous  labor,  which  only  a  man  like  Cooper, 
an  able  scholar,  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  literature 
of  his  profession,  and  the  French,  German,  and  Italian 
languages,  could  have  produced.  Gallons  of  ink  were 
spilled  in  its  composition,  and  cartloads  of  paper  con- 
sumed in  sending  it  into  the  world.  Like  a  busy  bee, 
the  author  gathered  honey  from  every  source  within 
his  reach.  Educated  at  St.  Bartholomew's  Hospital 
under  the  guidance  of  Ramsden,  Abernethy,  Blick,  and 
other  distinguished  surgeons,  he  entered  upon  his 
career,  destined  to  be  so  useful,  soon  after  the  death 
of  Hunter,  and  by  the  publication  of  his  two  popular 
works  thus  became  the  earliest  expounder  of  his  teach- 
ings, copious  extracts  from  his  treatises  on  inflamma- 
tion and  on  the  venereal  disease  being  introduced  into 
the  Dictionary.  Cooper  served  for  a  time  in  the  army, 
and  was  present  at  the  battle  of  Waterloo,  where  he 
performed  numerous  and  important  operations.  In 
1 83 1  he  succeeded  Sir  Charles  Bell  in  the  chair  of 
Surgery  in  the  London  University,  and  was  at  the 
same  time  appointed  Senior  Surgeon  to  University 
College  Hospital,  a  position  which  he  retained  until  a 
short  time  before  his  death,  in  1848.  As  an  operator 
he  is  said  to  have  been  painfully  slow,  and  as  a  teacher 
without  force  or  impressiveness.     If  he  was  not  a  man 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  gy 

of  genius,  and  no  one  who  knew  him  will  claim  for  him 
such  a  distinction,  he  possessed  a  rare  combination  of 
talents,  which  eminently  fitted  him  for  the  successful 
execution  of  his  noble  mission.  His  forte  evidently 
lay  in  his  pen,  which  he  wielded  with  uncommon 
facility,  and  with  scholarly  elegance.  A  new  edi- 
tion of  his  Dictionary  was  issued  in  1861-72,  under 
the  supervision  of  Mr.  Samuel  Lane,  of  London, 
assisted  by  various  eminent  surgeons.  As  a  vast  store- 
house of  surgical  knowledge,  embodying  the  results  of 
the  observations  and  experience  of  the  most  prominent 
surgeons  in  the  civilized  world,  it  is  destined  to  have  a 
lonor  survival. 

By  a  singular  coincidence,  Travers,  Brodie,  and 
Lawrence  were  born  in  the  same  year,  namely,  in  1783, 
within  a  few  months  of  each  other;  and  all  attained  to 
high  distinction  as  original  observers  and  men  of  earn- 
est, philosophical  minds.  Travers  died  in  1858.  Brodie 
in  1862,  and  Lawrence  in  1867.  Travers,  in  his  pro- 
fessional youth,  published  his  Inquiry  into  the  Process 
of  Nature  in  Repairing  Injuries  of  the  Intestines  ;  and 
at  a  later  period  his  famous  work,  in  two  volumes,  on 
Constitutional  Irritation,  a  subject  until  then  little 
understood  by  professional  men. 

The  Surgical  Essays  of  Sir  Astley  Cooper  and  Mr. 
Travers  appeared  in  1818,  the  latter  having  contributed 
a  number  of  valuable  papers.  He  subsequently  pub- 
lished Observations  on  the  Pathology  of  Venereal  Dis- 
eases, A  Further  Inquiry  Concerning  Constitutional 
Irritation,  and  the  Pathology  of  the  Nervous  System, 
and  finally,  in  1844,  Physiology  of  Inflammation  and  the 
Healing  Process.  These  works,  it  will  be  observed, 
partook  largely  of  a  medical  character,  and  his  con- 
temporaries paid  their  author  the  high  compliment  of 


gg  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

saying-  that,  distinguished  as  he  was  as  a  surgeon,  he 
would  have  been  a  greater  physician  if  his  mind  had 
been  specially  turned  in  that  direction.  In  1810,  soon 
after  Mr.  Travers  received  his  diploma,  he  was  appointed 
Surgeon  to  the  London  Infirmary  for  Diseases  of  the 
Eye,  since  called  the  London  Ophthalmic  Hospital, 
and  while  in  this  position  published  a  beautiful  little 
work,  entitled  Synopsis  of  the  Diseases  of  the  Eye  and 
their  Treatment.  In  the  early  part  of  the  century  this 
class  of  diseases  was  almost  exclusively  in  the  hands  of 
charlatans,  and  no  man  of  his  day  did  more  than  Mr. 
Travers  In  placing  the  subject  in  its  proper  light  before 
the  medical  profession  of  Great  Britain.  When  the 
trustees  of  the  Infirmary  offered  him  the  appointment 
of  oculist,  he  promptly  declined  it  unless  they  would 
annex  to  it  the  title  of  surgeon,  such  was  his  dislike  to 
be  regarded  as  a  specialist. 

Mr.  Travers  was  the  son  of  a  sugar-baker,  and  after 
receiving  his  elementary  education  was  placed  in  his 
father's  countincr-room.  He  had,  however,  a  crreat 
aversion  to  mercantile  pursuits,  and  in  1800  he  was 
apprenticed  to  Mr.,  afterwards  Sir,  Astley  Cooper.  He 
obtained  his  degree  in  1806,  after  which  he  spent  some 
time  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh.  His  early  pro- 
fessional success  was  not  brilliant,  but  he  gradually 
rose  to  eminence,  and  became  eventually  the  recipient 
of  many  well-merited  honors.  In  181 3  he  was  elected 
a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  and  in  181 5  Surgeon  to 
St.  Thomas's  Hospital.  He  was  President  of  the 
Medico-Chirurgical  Society  and  of  the  College  of  Sur- 
geons, Hunterian  orator  in  1838,  member  of  the  Coun- 
cil and  Court  of  Examiners,  Surgeon  Extraordinary 
to  the  Queen,  and  Surgeon  in  Ordinary  to  the  Prince 
Consort.     He  was  a  sound  anatomist  and  a  safe  but 


^ 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 


99 


not  dashing  operator,  and  his  lectures  were  character- 
ized by  good  taste  and  a  scholarly  style.  In  a  word, 
Travers  worked  nobly  for  his  profession  and  his  coun- 
try. His  magnificent  physique  and  genial  manners 
combined  to  form  the  type  of  a  man  of  distinguished 
appearance. 

With  the  name  of  Sir  Benjamin  C.  Brodie  every 
American  student  is  familiar.  With  no  English  writer 
of  the  present  century  is  the  progress  of  surgery  more 
intimately  associated  than  with  Brodie.  He  was  not 
only  a  great  practical  surgeon,  but  a  most  accomplished 
physician,  an  excellent  physiologist  and  pathologist,  a 
profound  thinker,  and  a  true  philosophical  disciple  of 
the  Hunterian  school.  Born  only  ten  years  before  the 
death  of  the  immortal  founder  of  scientific  surgery,  he 
devoted  himself  zealously  to  the  study  of  his  profes- 
sion, in  which  he  gradually  rose  to  the  highest  emi- 
nence. His  surgical  writings  bear  on  every  page  the 
impress  of  close  observation,  of  scientific  scrutiny,  and 
of  a  well-ordered,  well-balanced  mind  ;  while  his  physi- 
ological researches  display  great  philosophical  acumen 
and  deep  insight  into  the  mysteries  of  life.  "  His 
mind,"  says  one  who  thoroughly  knew  him,*  "was 
keenly  alive  to  the  value  of  purely  scientific  research, 
but  amidst  all  his  scientific  pursuits  he  never  for  a  mo- 
ment lost  sight  of  the  importance  of  utilizing  his  knowl- 
edpfe  for  the  relief  and  cure  of  disease."  He  was  the 
professional  adviser  of  three  sovereigns,  Corresponding 
Member  of  the  French  Institute,  a  D.C.L.  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Oxford,  President  of  the  Royal  Society,  and 
President  of  the  Medical  Council. 

Lawrence  I  have  always  regarded  as  the  most  ac- 

*  Aclaiul,  Biographical  Sketcli,  p.  i6. 


jOO  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPH^S. 

complished  surgical  writer  of  his  day  in  England,  an 
opinion  fully  shared,  if  I  mistake  not,  by  his  country- 
men and  by  the  medical  profession  generally.  His 
style,  indeed,  is  a  model  of  the  purest  Anglo-Saxon 
type.  Lawrence  studied  surgery  as  an  apprentice  for 
five  years  under  Abernethy,  gradually  rose  from  the 
office  of  Demonstrator  to  the  Professorship  of  Anat- 
omy and  Surgery  at  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons, 
and  was  until  1865,  two  years  before  his  death,  Surgeon 
to  St.  Bartholomew's  Hospital.  His  principal  works 
are  Lectures  on  Physiology,  Zoology  and  the  Natural 
History  of  Man,  issued  in  18 19,  a  publication  which, 
on  account  of  its  liberal  views,  brought  upon  him  the 
displeasure  of  his  old  master,  as  well  as  of  many  church- 
men ;  a  Treatise  on  Hernia,  issued  in  1807  ;  and  a 
Treatise  on  the  Diseases  of  the  Eye,  issued  in  1841. 
All  these  are  classical  productions,  destined  to  retain 
a  permanent  place  in  our  literature.  In  1863  he 
published  a  volume  of  lectures  on  the  Principles 
of  Surgery,  delivered  at  St.  Bartholomew's  Hospital, 
written  in  that  clear,  lucid  style  for  which  he  was  so 
justly  distinguished.  As  a  lecturer  he  is  said  to  have 
been  without  a  rival.  The  profession  owes  him  a  last- 
ing debt  of  gratitude  for  the  valuable  services  which 
he  rendered  to  surgery  in  an  age  prolific  of  great 
men  and  great  works.  The  honor  of  knighthood  was 
conferred  upon  Lawrence  only  a  few  years  before  his 
demise. 

Joseph  Henry  Green  was  born  in  London  in  1791. 
He  was  the  only  son  of  his  parents,  the  father  being  a 
highly  respectable  merchant,  and  the  mother,  a  lady  of 
uncommon  culture,  a  daughter  of  Mr.  Cline,  the  emi 
nent  surgeon.  After  having  received  a  thorough  ele- 
mentary education  he  was  apprenticed  to  his  uncle,  who 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  jqj 

was  Surgeon  to  St.  Thomas's  Hospital,  where  he  hence- 
forth pursued  his  studies.  In  1815  he  obtained  the 
diploma  of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  and  imme- 
diately entered  upon  a  career  which  eventually  proved 
to  be  so  brilliant  and  honorable.  Ascending  rapidly 
from  the  demonstratorship  of  anatomy  to  the  junior  sur- 
geoncy, he  was  appointed  full  surgeon  to  St.  Thomas's 
in  1820,  and  became  at  once  associated  with  Sir  Astley 
Cooper  as  joint  lecturer  on  anatomy  and  surgery. 
While  engaged  in  his  more  humble  position  he  published 
a  small  but  useful  work,  entitled  the  Dissector's  Manual. 
In  1824  he  was  elected  Professor  of  Anatomy  to  the 
Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  and  delivered  a  course  of 
lectures  on  the  comparative  anatomy  of  the  animal 
kingdom.  In  the  following  year  he  was  elected  a 
Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  and  also  Professor  of 
Anatomy  to  the  Royal  Academy.  In  1830,  on  the 
establishment  of  King's  College,  he  was  appointed 
Professor  of  Surgery  in  that  institution,  and  held  the 
office  until  1836.  "His  lectures,"  says  Mr.  Simon, 
his  biographer,  "  were  models  of  systematic  technical 
teaching,"  admirable  in  method,  lucid  in  style,  compre- 
hensive in  completeness,  and  on  a  level  with  the  exist- 
ing state  of  the  science.  Mr.  Green  delivered  the  Hun- 
terian  oration  in  1840  and  again  in  1847,  selecting  for 
his  subject  on  the  first  occasion  "  Vital  Dynamics,"  and 
on  the  last  "  Mental  Dynamics,  or  A  Groundwork  of  a 
Philosophical  Education."  His  mind  was  eminently 
speculative,  due  partly  to  natural  or  innate  tendencies, 
and  partly  to  his  German  training  in  the  schools  at 
Hanover ;  much  of  his  leisure  was  devoted  to  the 
study  of  the  ancient  philosophers  and  their  writings. 
He  was  a  great  admirer  of  Hunter,  as  well  as  one  of 
his  most  able   and  eloquent  interpreters,  and  it  was 


J02  JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS. 

under  his  administration  as  President  of  the  Royal 
College  of  Surgeons  that  Hunter's  remains  were  in- 
terred in  Westminster  Abbey.  A  posthumous  work 
in  two  volumes,  entitled  Spiritual  Philosophy  Founded 
on  the  Teaching  of  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge,  was  pub- 
lished under  the  supervision  of  John  Simon,  F.R.S.,  a 
former  pupil.  He  died  in  December,  1 863.  As  a  highly 
educated  philosophical  surgeon  Mr.  Green  was  equal 
to  any  man  of  his  day  in  Great  Britain,  while  in  point 
of  intellectual  powers  and  thorough  training  he  was  far 
above  the  great  majority  of  his  professional  brethren. 
In  fact,  in  many  respects,  he  stood  alone,  and  he  would 
probably  have  been  a  still  greater  man  if  he  had  not 
been  led  astray  by  transcendentalism. 

I  must  pass  with  bare  mention  over  the  names  of  Ed- 
ward Stanley,  a  great  surgeon  and  the  authorof  the  first 
scientific  work  ever  published  on  the  diseases  of  the 
bones  ;  of  John  F.  South,  the  able  translator  of  and 
learned  commentor  on  Chelius's  Surgery  ;  and  of  Csesar 
Hawkins,  Surgeon  Extraordinary  to  the  Queen,  Surgeon 
to  St.  George's  Hospital,  an  accomplished  scholar,  an 
excellent  lecturer,  and  an  expert  and  judicious  operator. 
To  this  list  might  be  added  the  names  of  many  more  men 
who  have  illustrated  their  profession  by  advancing  and 
successfully  carrying  on  the  great  work  instituted  by 
Hunter  in  the  interests  of  scientific  surgery,  but  to  do  so 
would  require  far  more  space  and  time  than  the  limits 
to  which  I  am  restricted  will  permit.  In  no  period  of 
the  history  of  Great  Britain  has  surgery  made  such 
rapid  strides  as  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century, 
or  been  illustrated  by  the  labors  of  so  many  learned, 
educated,  and  accomplished  men.  The  heritage  which 
was  left  to  them  by  John  Hunter  has  borne  rich  fruit,  the 
salutary  effects  of  which  will  be  felt  in  all  future  ages. 


JOHN  HUNTER  AND  HIS  PUPILS.  jq-' 

While  these  and  other  men,  all  excellent  In  their 
way,  but  less  gifted  and  less  renowned,  were  engaged 
in  advancing  the  interests  of  surgery  in  England, 
the  honor  of  Irish  surgery  was  nobly  upheld  by  Col- 
les,  Cusack,  Carmichael,  Crampton,  Robert  Smith,  Ad- 
ams, Porter,  and  others,  whose  labors  and  writings 
have  contributed  so  much  to  exalt  our  art,  and  to  shed 
lustre  upon  their  age  and  country.  In  Scotland,  dur- 
ing the  early  part  of  the  present  century,  more  was 
done  for  scientific  surgery  by  John  Thomson  than  by 
any  other  man,  and  at  a  later  period  that  country  found 
noble  followers  of  Hunter  in  Liston,  Syme  and  Fer- 
gusson,  so  recently  lost  to  surgery.  In  France  the  most 
able  surgical  pathologists  of  this  period  were  Baron 
Boyer,  the  author  of  a  great  work  on  Surgery  ;  and  A. 
N.  Gendrin,  whose  luminous  monograph  on  Inflam- 
mation— Histoire  Anatomique  des  Inflammations — 
was  published  at  Paris  in  1826.  Germany  had  Graefe 
and  Rust,  of  Berlin,  Langenbeck,  of  Gottingen,  Vogel, 
of  Brunswick,  and  Chelius,  of  Heidelberg.  Italy  could 
boast  only  of  one  man,  but  that  man  was  a  truly  great 
surgeon.  Who  is  not  familiar  with  the  name  of  Anto- 
nio Scarpa  and  his  noble  works,  honorable  alike  to  his 
genius  and  to  his  country  ? 


APPENDIX. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  HUNTER'S  \YRITINGS  * 

1762. — I.  On  the  Descent  of  the  Testis. 

1762. — 2.  On  Absorption  by  Veins. 

1766. — 3.  An  account  of  an  amphibious  Bipes,  by  J.  Ellis,  with  supplement 
by  J.  Hunter. 

1771. — 4.  Treatise  on  the  Natural  History  of  the  Human  Teeth,  Part  I. 

1772. — 5.  On  the  Digestion  of  the  Stomach  after  death. 

1773. — 6.  Anatomical  Observations  on  the  Torpedo. 

1774. — 7.  An  account  of  certain  receptacles  for  air  in  Birds,  which  communi- 
cate with  the  lungs  and  Eustachian  tubes,  etc. 

1774. — 8.  Observations  on  the  Gillaroo  Trout,  commonly  called  in  Ireland  the 
Gizzard  Trout. 

1775. — 9.  An  account  of  the  Gymnotus  electricus. 

1775. — 10.  Experiments  on  Animals  and  Vegetables,  with  respect  to  the  power 
of  producing  heat. 

1776. —  II.  Proposals  for  the  recovery  of  people  apparently  drowned. 

1776-1792. — 12.  Croonian  Lectures  on  Muscular  Motion  (never  printed). 

1777. — 13.  On  the  Heat  of  Animals,  etc. 

1778. — 14.  Treatise  on  the  Natural  History  of  the  Pluman  Teeth,  Part  II. 

1779. — 15.  An  account  of  the  Free  Martin. 

1780. — 16.  Account  of  a  Woman  who  had  the  small-pox  during  pregnancy, 
and  who  seemed  to  have  communicated  the  same  disease  to  the  fcetus. 

1780. — 17.  An  account  of  an  extraordinary  Pheasant. 

1782. — 18.  Account  of  the  Organ  of  Hearing  in  Fishes. 

1784. — 19.  Observations  on  the  inflammation  of  the  internal  coats  of  Veins. 

1785. — 20.  Description  of  a  new  Marine  Animal,  in  a  letter  from  Everard 
Home  to  J.  Hunter,  F.R.S.,  with  a  postscript  by  Hunter,  containing  anatomical 
remarks  upon  the  same. 

1786. — 21.  Treatise  on  the  Venereal  Disease. 

1786. — 22.  Observations  on  certain  parts  of  the  Animal  GLconomy,  being  a 
republication  of  certain  papers  above  mentioned,  in  llie  Phil.  Trans.,  to  which 
were  added  the  nine  following: 

23.  A  description  of  the  situation  of  the  Testis  in  the  Ffctus,  with  its 
descent  into  the  scrotum. 

*  This  list  is  copied  verbatim  from  Otiley's  Life,  and  affords  an  excellent  idea 
of  the  marvellous  amount  of  literary  work  accomplished  by  Hunter  during  a 
period  of  less  than  a  quarter  of  a  century. 

8 


io6 


APPENDIX. 


24.  Observations  on  the  glands  situated  between  the  rectum  and  the 
bladder,  called  vesiculae  seminales. 

25.  On  the  Structure  of  the  Placenta. 

26.  Some  observations  on  Digestion  (almost  an  entirely  new  paper). 

27.  On  a  secretion  in  the  crop  of  breeding  Pigeons  for  the  nourishment 
of  their  young. 

28.  On  the  color  of  the  Pigmenium  nigmm  in  different  animals. 

29.  The  use  of  the  oblique  Muscles. 

30.  A  description  of  the  Nerves  which  supply  the  Organ  of  Smelling. 

31.  A  description  of  some  branches  of  the  fifth  pair  of  Nerves. 

1787. — 32.  Observations  tending  to  show  that  the  Wolf,  Jackal,  and  Dog  are 
all  of  the  same  species. 

1787. — 2^.  An  experiment  to  determine  the  effect  of  extirpating  one  ovarium 
upon  the  number  of  young  produced. 

1787. — 34.  Observations  on  the  Structure  and  Qiconomy  of  Whales. 

1789. — 35.  Supplement  to  the  paper  on  the  Wolf,  Jackal,  and  Dog. 

1789. — 36.  On  Introsusception. 

1789. — 37.  An  account  of  Hunter's  method  of  performing  the  operation  for 
the  cure  of  Popliteal  Aneurism,  by  Everard  Home,  Esq.,  from  materials  furnished 
by  Hunter. 

1790. — 38.  A  case  of  Paralysis  of  the  Muscles  of  Deglutition  cured  by  an  arti- 
ficial mode  of  conveying  food  and  medicines  into  the  stomach. 

1790. — 39.  Some  observations  on  the  loose  cartilages  found  in  joints,  and  most 
commonly  met  with  in  that  of  the  knee,  by  Everard  Home,  Esq.,  from  materials 
furnished  by  Hunter. 

1790. — 40.  General  observations  on  the  mode  of  collecting  and  sending  home 
animals,  and  on  the  nomenclature  and  classification  of  animals. 

1790. — 41.  Description  of  the  Kangaroo. 

1790. — 42.  Description  of  the  Wha  Tapoau  Roo. 

1790. — 43.  Description  of  the  Dingo,  or  Wild  Dog  of  Australia. 

1790. — 44    Description  of  the  Tapoa  Tafa  or  Tapha. 

1790. — 45.  Description  of  the  Poto  Roo,  or  Kangaroo  Rat. 

1790. — 46.   Description  of  the  Hepoona  Roo. 

1791. — 47.  Observations  on  certain  horny  excrescences  of  the  human  body,  by 
Everard  Home,  F.R.S.,  from  materials  furnished  by  Hunter. 

1792. — 48.  Observations  on  Bees. 

1793. — 49.  Some  facts  relative  to  the  late  J.  Hunter's  preparation  for  the  Croo- 
nian  Lectures,  by  E.  Home,  Esq. 

1794. — 50.  Observations  on  the  Fossil  Bones  presented  to  the  Royal  Society 
by  the  Margrave  of  Anspach,  by  the  late  J.  Hunter. 

1794. — 51.  Treatise  on  the  Blood,  Inflammation,  and  Gunshot  Wounds. 

1794. — 52.  The  case  of  a  young  Woman  who  poisoned  herself  in  the  first 
month  of  pregnancy,  by  Thomas  Ogle;  to  which  is  added  an  account  of  the  ap- 
pearances after  death,  Ijy  the  late  J.  Hunter. 

1794. — 53.  Hunter's  opinion  concerning  the  Anatomy  of  the  Camel's  Stomach. 

1794. — 54.  Notes  on  the  Anatomy  of  the  Jerboa,  by  Hunter. 

1798. — 55.  Experiments  and  observations  on  the  gro\\lh  of  Bones,  from  the 
papers  of  the  late  J.  Hunter,  by  Everard  Home,  F.R..S. 


